Racism and nationalism

Worshiping the sunrise at Terrigal this morning

The pandemic, because of its disproportionate impact on minorities, probably exacerbated the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests around the world.  And those protests have caused me to ponder my own racial biases.  I would claim not to be a racist, but suspect I would also have failed the Implicit Association Test recently conducted in Australia to test implicit biases against Indigenous Australians.  Three out of four Australians tested were found to have a bias.  The test, developed by Harvard, is based on the speed of association of positive or negative words with images of Caucasians and Indigenous Australians.  For the sake of clarity, the test identifies bias, which is not necessarily racism.

Crackneck this morning

I know from my travels in Australia by bike, that I have been particularly careful with my belongings when in remote towns with many indigenous inhabitants.  I have also been extra careful in black neighbourhoods in my times living in the UK and US.  I'm not comfortable with my wariness and would like to think that my caution was unjustified, especially since I have never had a bad experience in these places.

My (self-serving and amateur) explanation for my bias, implicit and explicit, is that humans are primarily tribal.  That is, we are implicitly suspicious of outsiders and people who look different, and implicitly comfortable with those who look like us and have a shared culture.  Fear of the "other" is in our DNA and probably evolved as critical to survival in ancient times.

Wamberal lagoon this morning

I think the cure for this implicit bias is to recognise it for what it is, to continually examine our own response to racial cues, to embrace opportunities to interact with other races and cultures, and to try and see things from their point of view.  I believe all humans have the same motivations and ambitions, good and bad, and the world will be a better place when we see that and treat them the same as we would wish to be treated.

Terrigal Beach this morning

Nationalism, in my mind, is akin to racism, and seems to have grown with the pandemic.  The politicians and commentators who argue for putting their countries first, who denigrate other countries, and who fight to prevent jobs "going overseas" are really de-humanising the people in those other countries.  They present those countries as amorphous blobs, rather than workers and families trying to get ahead and live happy lives.  This is not a zero sum game.  The Australian job that goes to a Chinese factory worker or Indian call centre worker comes back to Australia as a Chinese tourist or Indian student.  The more Chinese and Indians who visit Australia, the more comfortable we will be with those cultures and the more likely we are to treat them fairly.  Each country has comparative advantages in some goods and services that it produces.  It should play to those strengths and we will all be better off, economically and socially.

I stepped up the exercise this morning, though it's all relative.  I covered my scheduled 9km, walking the first 4km and jogging the last 5km, my first running in 10 days.  It was slow and hard work, with the hip injury no worse at the end than at the start, which I'm hoping is a good sign.  Back home, I cycled for 30 minutes on the trainer to see how the hip would handle cycling.  Pretty much the same story as when jogging this morning ..... no sorer at the end than at the start.