What if there was a theory of human behavior that explained how it is that humans develop a hatred for its own kind, that thing we call racism? What might it say about how we treat each other, and where in our distant past this thing first appeared, and how it survived over the millennia?

Perhaps it would touch on the time when those early creatures ventured out of the forest of trees onto the open savannah, and how they did so with great trepidation. All cover and means of escape and hiding were now gone. They would have been wary of predators and unknown possible threats, and they’d move out with great caution, carefully eyeing the landscape around them, seeking definition of anything that might pounce. They would learn by practical experience those things that were safe in their new world, and by bad experiences those things that weren’t, those things that enhanced their travels out in the open, versus those that could cause great harm, including death. Cause-and-effect, life and death. But they would learn.

There is clear evidence that these creatures as they moved out into the open landscapes, moved in groupings of families, possibly as large as 20 or so individuals. Their venture and travel appeared to center around the seeking of food and shelter and a source of water. When this band of early humans met another group of families the survival response kicked in, and with great caution they eyed each other. Are these people a threat, or are they safe to be around? If there was a common language, or at least similar gruntings, discerning a threat or safety might have been a bit easier. Without a common means, determining threat or not was no simple matter.

Very likely the visual played a big part in these encounters, the noticing from afar those differences from their own kind, from their families and friends. How were they different from us, and when they were, what did any of those differences mean?

In encounter after encounter, differences would be sorted out, between differences that meant nothing and interchanges went along without incident, and those where perceived differences signaled something to be concerned about, that might be cause for a protective defensive response. Someone posited that the handshake evolved from those early encounters when one didn’t know whether the person across the way was friendly or a threat. At one point the one opened his hands outward exposing a hand without a weapon, as a greeting to advertise he was a friend and had no ill intentions, and especially he had no weapons. The handshake was the symbolic gesture that grew out of that sign of friendship. That may be apocryphal, but it makes for a good story.

One could posit that the noticing of difference as it played out in those early encounters was a learned and necessary response for survival, because it was a needed ability to discern whether the other was friend or foe. It mattered for survival. Noticing differences is a survival mechanism, something that has its roots in our DNA from a very long time ago.

Noticing differences is built into the nature of us as human beings. Noticing differences is what we do, though today it is more unconscious and naturally happens all the time. Largely it happens without the force of deadly threat, but it still happens. For the most part we aren’t aware it is happening. For most of us.

Today we notice differences, and we ascribe various meanings to them depending on what we learned as children growing up in a certain setting. As Lt. Joe Cable learned late, “…we have to be carefully taught…!”

None of us had a choice in how we were trained as children, what it was that was inculcated in us about the differences we see in those around us. Some grew up in a toxic environment, and they grew to see the enemy everywhere around them. Their lives as adults are full of negative run-ins with various racial others, and to outside observers it is easy to see the racism in how they carry themselves. Others may grow up in that same negative setting with hatred all around, and yet come out as adults who are more tolerant of the differences they see and encounter in other people. Some grow up in basically good homes that stress tolerance with differences, that embrace the diversity as part of being human. Some in that same setting can come out with a warped and skewed view of others of different cast. There is not, however, a guarantee that one grows up tolerant and forgiving from even such a positive home. It is amazing that regardless of the upbringing, in spite of the childhood training, the mechanism of seeing differences operates in everyone, it can’t be stopped, it works regardless, and the main and critical factor is how we respond to the perceived differences.

So, what is it about seeing differences today and what has it to do with racism? We all see the various kinds of differences in our encounters with each other. It happens, and we have no say about it. It occurs, and we can’t control it, or in any way stop it from happening. It’s part of our nature as a survival mechanism. It’s part of what makes us human. Bottom line, it in and of itself, is not a bad thing. We just need to understand that it operates, and that we have a choice in the face of noticing differences around us how we will respond.

Here’s a life experience to consider: When Barbara and I and our son Paul went to the commencement ceremonies for our daughter Diana when she graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder, we decided to make a side pilgrimage to the site of the WWII concentration camp at Camp Amache in Southeastern Colorado near the Kansas border where I and my family were incarcerated during the war. We left Denver early in the morning and along the way stopped for breakfast at a roadside drive-in diner. Outside in the parking lot were a couple of pickup trucks with gun racks in the back window, and whip antennas on their fenders. This tells you a bit about my perspective about race in different places in our country. Our family was made up of Barbara and me, our son Paul, daughter Diana, and Diana’s best friend Tracy from childhood who was with us for the graduation.

As we walked into the diner, there was the normal chatter you’d expect in a public place, and very quickly all chatter ceased and there was a deathly silence over the entire room as the patrons watched us entering the restaurant. It is something that I am used to, and recognized immediately – we were a spectacle to behold: a Japanese man, white Barbara, mixed race Paul and Diana, and what must have been a most mystifying element in our group, a very white freckle-faced redheaded Tracy. Difference was clearly noticed, especially in the faces of our family and Diana’s friend. It was the very natural survival mechanism of noticing of differences.

Was this racism? Possibly. And given the population of the area, more likely than not for some of the people.

Here’s another situation that I believe applies to and happens with everyone, regardless of one’s background and upbringing. You’re walking down the street in your hometown, and coming in the opposite direction is a couple, a large dark-skinned man, and on his arm a very white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. As they pass you, you take a second glance. Again, this is the natural survival mechanism of noticing differences kicking in. Is the fact you took a second glance a racist response?

Before I answer that question, here’s the thing – I think we first have to acknowledge that the noticing of differences is a natural survival mechanism rooted in our history as a species back to when we moved out of the trees onto the open savannah. As a natural defense mechanism, it is neutral, it is natural, and especially it is very human as a survival mechanism. And it happens to everyone. 

That said, I can’t know if the second glance is racist, not really, because it is something going on in the mind internally, and I don’t read minds. I can get a fairly good idea depending on one’s behavior afterwards, what one says and what one does. I’ve had years of experience with second glances, and especially seeing the afterwards behaviors of people. And anyone who claims they don’t see differences, they don’t see color, and stand on being a good religious person, is fooling themselves. Everyone sees differences. Everyone notices color. Everyone registers the gradations of difference, whatever the color or stripe, it is in our DNA and in our nature. And again, the registering of difference isn’t a bad thing.

I guess my main objective in this thought-piece is to stress the natural nature of the second glance, that it is rooted in a very necessary survival mechanism that helped us survive in a very different world back on the open savannah, and it isn’t in and of itself a negative thing. Once a difference is observed and noted, then is the critical question, what is the nature of our response?