Science

 

           So, what is the science?

            1.) What is the real science in regards to the differences between groups of humans on a large scale?

and

            2.) What is the real science in regards to why our brains so confidently misperceive those differences?

            First, go back to the cover page and stare at the image of Mount Rushmore with Barack Obama in place of Thomas Jefferson.  Remember, I am not an activist and I have no deep seeded political agenda.  I created this image and placed it on the cover because I wanted to create something that would be emotionally provocative to everyone on all sides of the racial divide.  I also wanted an emotionally provocative image with racial content that would have no logical reason to create emotion in anyone. 

            My thinking is that President Obama is a president who is somewhat revolutionary, similar to those who are currently chiseled in stone.  He is asking us to take a new direction on many fronts.  He has an enormous agenda and numerous obstacles.  Should he succeed, he may well deserve a spot on Mount Rushmore in, oh, about 200 years or so.  This is a reasonable suggestion.  It should not be emotionally provocative.

            But, of course, the real issue is his blackness.  President Obama's genetic ancestry includes both Northern Europe and East Africa.  Yes, I said East Africa.  Not West Africa where most African Americans can trace their genetic ancestry.  And his cultural upbringing is actually Asian.  Nevertheless, we have labeled him as being "black."  This means that we think he is the first "black" president.  Well, that is a half truth.  Despite the fact that he brings some color to that mountain of bleached white men, my point is that this stuff is interesting but should not be emotionally provocative. 

            There are several other issues.  First, Obama is a constitutional scholar and he replaced Jefferson who was the intellectual that wrote the Declaration of Independence.  It seems like they bring similar ideals to the table.  Second, Obama reminds us of people who were once enslaved in America but Jefferson was a slave owner.  This one is sort of contradictory.  But Jefferson was at least the most forward thinking of the guys in his circle at the time.  (Probably because he was screwing his black slave girls, but that is another story.)  Third, Obama likely has zero DNA traceable to anyone who was ever a slave in America.  Fourth, Jefferson said, "Blacks are surely an inferior race and I call upon science to find proof of it."

            OK, I bring up numerous issues but what I am really trying to talk about is the idea that everyone misperceives reality in regards to human differences.  For example, everyone has an idea about Barack Obama's genetic ancestry but most of these ideas are not true.  

            You were just reminded about the reality of President Obama's genetic ancestry, and you know that it is true, yet you still want to hold onto your false beliefs.  

            Why is that?

            OK, the only possible reason that this image could make you have feelings of excitement, pride, indignation, anger or just plain shock would be due to your own inability to perceive the human species as it really is.  If you look at this image and you can't stop hearing the Sesame Street song entitled, "One of these things is not like the others..."  … well … maybe you are a typically bias human.  But why do you insist on holding onto these ideas even when reality is thrown in your face?

            The truth is that Washington, Obama, Roosevelt, and Lincoln all belong to the same relatively young and homogenous species.  The song does not apply here.  Yet, I bet that you still feel like it does?

            Why don't we do the horse thing one more time.

 

 

          Here is an image of three pinto horses.  They appear to be different kinds of horse.  How can they all be the same?  They are all the same breed but they all appear slightly different?  How is that?  I thought that if you were a different color then you would be a different animal or at least a different race or subspecies or whatever.  Do you believe that these three horses are all the same breed?  Sure you do and you have no difficulty believing it.  So, why is it so hard to believe that Obama and Lincoln are the same animal?

            It is because of the way our brains are programmed.  In order to understand the concept that Barack Obama and George Washington are the same, you must stop thinking like a human is programmed to think.  I would guess that 90% of us have a hard time doing that. 

            Our brains are programmed to detect subtle visual differences in other humans.  Then, we are programmed to use bias to categorize other humans as being either "us" or "them."  We are programmed to feel warm towards "us" and hostile towards "them."  This is very important programming in a hunting and gathering environment where we were running around like little football teams.  We needed to be able to detect the opponent so we could crush them without them crushing us. 

          Other humans are like players on the other team and animals are like the band and cheerleaders and drill team etc.  The ancillary individuals are welcome and needed and you will turn your attention to them in a moment but the other team is who you need to approach with a heightened sense of combat readiness.

            Even someone like me whose father was instrumental in the civil rights movement and whose best friend as a child was African American always has a hard time not being prejudice.  If a group of five or ten black players on the Denver Broncos came into my home I would be very happy to see them but I would also be very aware of their blackness the entire time they were here.  Why do I do that?

            My brain is just programmed to categorize them as "them" due to their visual characteristics.  And maybe a little olfactory too.  Especially if Rich Jackson is one of them.  I heard that after a visit to Carl's Junior he can fart the national anthem.  He ... he ...

            Not being prejudice is an intellectual activity that runs counter to our innate programming.  Some of us can kind of do it but most of us find it difficult.

            The place in our brain that is most involved in logical or analytical thinking is the pre-frontal cortex.  This brain structure exists in no other animal and it is evolutionarily quite young in Homo sapiens.  That means that it has not existed long enough to get all the bugs out of the system. 

            Also, the pre-frontal cortex does not freely process just any kind of information.  It is highly programmed to process certain specific tasks and not process other specific tasks.  So, it can be fooled.  It does rationalization pretty well but it is missing any kind of reality detection program. 

            For example, you can wear a helmet and experience a 3-D video that fools your brain into thinking you are riding a roller coaster.  If you present your brain with information that is in the correct programming language then your brain deals with this information in the same way regardless of whether it is real or fantasy.

            Therefore, if you are lily white and your brain is presented with a black man your brain does what it is programmed to do.  It feels a sense of danger and makes a rationalization.  You can't make it not do this.  You know that this black man is Colin Powell and you know that Colin Powell is not a threat but that immature little pre-frontal cortex of yours tells you to be cautious.  It tells you to feel uncomfortable as if there was a threat.  It takes a long time to convince it that there is no threat.  Even then, it is still not 100% certain.

            Colin Powell is visually different and your brain has a program that tells you that another human that is visually different is a potential threat. 

            Here is another example.  Suppose that Roger Staubach is sitting in a restaurant wearing his number 12 Cowboy's jersey.  Joe Theisman comes in wearing his number 7 Redskin's jersey and sits down with Roger.  These are two old men who have not played football in over 20 years.  They like and respect each other.  They have a friendly conversation.  They ask about each other's spouses.  And yet, the entire time they are both acutely aware of a feeling deep down inside that they should be cautious of one another as there might be a threat.  Simply because one is wearing maroon and the other is in blue.

            Another problem is that the environment in which our brains evolved included only small groups of humans.  We evolved to detect differences in small groups of humans.  We did not evolve the ability to cognitively process statistics that tell us how millions of people are the same.  It is easy for us to process that the Cowboys and the Redskins are different but not so easy to process that all football players who ever played are essentially the same.  Yeah, think about it.  Wait ... no ... OK ...well, maybe.  Right?

            It is now impossible for anyone to live in an environment that only includes small numbers of people.  There are over seven billion people on earth and the internet is turning all of us into a single community. 

            Seven billion people that graduate into one another.  And, on a large scale, are all the same.

            Our brains confidently misperceive these differences even when they are pointed out.  Many of you probably still doubt what I am saying in this chapter.  Our brains are programmed to look at small groups and detect differences.  Not to look for similarities in large groups.

            But I still can't understand how seven billion people are all the same?

            Yes, this is the difficult part for most people to comprehend.  Let me do another example.  Suppose that you obtained seven billion tiny roses and used them to create one rose.  Do you see how gradual the color change is?

 

 

            A single red rose might look very different from a single yellow rose but when you look at six billion roses how do you figure out where to draw lines that differentiate distinct subgroups.  And isn't color just a superficial visual difference.  These are all still roses, right?

            Humans cover the Earth in the same way that these roses make up a single rainbow colored rose.  But, like the roses, we are all still the same.  We are all still humans and humans are still a very homogenous species.