Bias vs. Truth – Part 2

Categorizing or stereotyping people serves the mistaken idea that we know who a Muslim or a Mississippian is and what to think about each of them instantaneously.  “Oh, you’re from Ireland, let me see if we have any whiskey in the house.” The only time this kind of thing doesn’t happen is when bigots don’t know anything about a given group. “Oh, you’re from Mauritania. Uhhhh ... nice.”

I’m part Sicilian, and Sicilians have some percentage of Moorish DNA. In the 18th century it was common for northern Europeans and even northern Italians to call Sicilians darkies with the accompanying implication of being a lower life form. Sicilians do not have dark skin. They have darker skin. So superiority being based on your melanin levels, as mentioned in Part 1 of this opus, is like superiority being based on your blood type.

Some of us are overweight. Naturally, that translates to gluttony and laziness, when the truth may be that these people are trapped by their physiology. The whole super-hunger mess has something to do with the genetics underlying the “reward triggers” in the brain. Dopamine and other pleasure chemistry just aren’t functioning right. When this happens nutritionists say we cannot control the urge to eat more and wash it down with more drink and so on, and finish everything off with a Snickers.

So, most biases that wind up incriminating people are the result of misinformation and our ease at enjoying this misinformation.

Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.