How we humans are discriminatory by nature and how our cultural, religious and social values contribute in countering or encouraging such behavior.

Discrimination

Discrimination can be defined as "the denial of equal access to social resources to people on the basis of their group membership." Preferential treatment towards a person based on caste, religion, skin color, etc. rather than individual merit can be interpreted as being discriminatory.

Programming

By Programming I am implying the animal or natural instincts of us humans. As Humans, we have been evolving for quite a long period. Our mental wiring is such that we find babies cute and old people not so cute. Isn't that a form of discrimination? Most of the animals we consume are ugly: hen, pig, fish, etc. If rabbit meat is served would you eat it? (Well I would / do.)

Recently I posted a note on a TED talk given by Dan Dannet about the evolutionary 'wiring' of our brains. Watch his talk for more information.

Nature Has Programmed Us to be Discriminatory

We are programmed by nature to be discriminatory, just as much as we are programmed to steal and kill.

Nature has programed us to be selective based on our physical sensory perception. We would be stereotypical of people based on their appearance. Do we not associate behavior of dogs with their breed? If there is a clear liquid in a glass, is it wrong to assume that it is water? By nature we would are required to evaluate if a person, animal, fruit, flower, etc is a threat or not based on our sensory perception.

                         
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Social, Religious and Cultural Programming

There are several forces that prevent us from killing or stealing. Punishment for example seems to work well with humans and animals (who have a hint of intelligence). Compassion / empathy is another force that would prevent us from stealing. Religion is manifestation of compassion and punishment.

                         
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For example Christianity teaches that if we kill then we go to hell after we die; Buddhism teaches that murder
(regardless of the context) would bring us negative Karma or Akusal and these Karma will have to paid for during this life or others to come.

Thus, we humans who tend to steal, kill, discriminate, eat rabbit meat etc. can be disciplined by law, religion, culture etc. so that we do not steal, kill, discriminate, eat rabbit meat, etc.

Countering Animal Instincts

Our animal instincts would make us want to do something (probably bad) but our cultural and religious beliefs will be preventing us from engaging in it. For example I love to eat. But I would not pig-out if there other people to eat. This is something I learnt from friends and family.

                         
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But then again I used to battle against my brother for KitKat. I suppose we can make a few exceptions? KitKat is something I would not share :) My animal instinct to pig-out (probably to survive) is countered by my social, religious and cultural programming.

But what if our cultural and religious programming is discriminatory?

If our culture and religion endorses and promotes racial or religious superiority over other races and religions, then how can we oppose our animal instincts?

                         
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     discrimination                        / \         discrimination

If we are disciplined from childhood that virginity is sacred then we would not be sexually "experimental" or "liberal".

If we are programmed from childhood that bribery is accepted then the remaining opposing forces such as religion, empathy, etc. would have little effect on us. Thus would we not be inclined to accept and offer bribes?

Listed below are some forms of discriminatory programming I have experienced:

• "Christians are superior because only they will have the chance to go to heaven"
• Caste based classification. People of higher castes don't wine / dine / slam-dunk with those of lower castes
• "We would only sell our property to a X", where X is either Tamil, Sinhalese or Muslim
• "He has long hair / pony tail. I think we should not hire him" - hmmmm
• "I think I'll hire the cute guy"
• "XX hires only women who he can screw"
• "XXX has a nice thick mustache so let's vote for him"
• "I don't have fat friends. I won't think we can be friends"
• "He/she is from some village school should we hire him/her?"

My Point is

My point to all this is, I feel that some of our cultural and religious values program us to be discriminatory. We are faced with various forms of discrimination (race, caste, religion, body-size, hair-length etc.) and if we are to move forward as a society then I feel that we should evaluate our cultural values and eliminate the ones that promote or drive us towards discrimination.

                         
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     discrimination                    / \         discrimination