Why I don't rag on white people
Over at The Panda's Thumb has a realization about the Intelligent Design crowd that parallels my own discovery about racists.:
I am beginning to understand that the core motivation driving the supporters of such proposals is fear. Not fear for themselves ? they are too strong in their faith to be corrupted by evolutionary science. It is fear for their children and in particular, fear for their children?s souls. There is a genuine belief that accepting an evolutionary view of biological phenomena is a giant step on the road to atheism, and in learning evolutionary theory their children are in peril of losing salvation. Given the beliefs they hold, this is not a silly fear. From their perspective, atheism is a deadly threat, and evolution is a door through which that threat can enter to corrupt one?s child. No amount of scientific research, no citations of scientific studies, no detailed criticism of the Wellsian trash science offered in ?teach the controversy? proposals, speaks to those fears. If one genuinely fears that learning evolution will corrupt one?s children and damn them for eternity, scientific reasoning is wholly irrelevant.[P6: emphasis added]
This is a subtle realization.
Black folks tend to think that racism = hatred because we feel hated when we run into it. But parents do not teach their children racism out of hatred. They do it out of love, and a true belief in what is being taught.
Now, just try changing someone's mind about something they were taught by someone they love and trust.
Again, the central problem is ignorance. And though short term the struggle is largely political, the long term strategy will involve people learning the old ways are less efficient than the ways knowledge makes possible.
