Rep.Steve Cohen wins the Internet with devastating tweet '3/5' on Giuliani’s racism. Stands by tweet

[tblue37]

64. Yes, which is why I cringe when people claim kids have to "learn" to be racist

or prejudiced against those who are different from themselves. The unfortunate truth is that they must be actively and consistently taught NOT to slip into such prejudice, since suspicion of those who are unlike one's own group is natural (instinctive) and once provided real evolutionary advantage. It's also why baby's fear strangers, but *mainly* strange men.

Stranger fear usually kicks in right about the age when an infant begins to be able to put some distance between itself and its primary caretaker--at crawling age, about 8 months, give or take. Studies show that tall persons, especially those with deep voices, are most likely to trigger stranger fear. Most of those people are men, but unusually tall or deep-voiced women also trigger fear more reliably than small women or those with more "feminine" voices. In nature, of course a strange man would have represented a greater danger to an infant than an unfamiliar woman.

Similarly, during our evolution, strangers were more likely to endanger us than family or clan members. And the more different someone looked from one's own people, the more certain it was that the person was not one of the clan or tribe--and therefore potentially hostile.

Kids need to be taught NOT to automatically suspect or reject those who are different from themselves. If it is left to chance, on the assumption that kids are natural multiculturalists, prejudice will stick deep. In communities where such prejudice is deliberately indulged, coached, and reinforced, it will become almost impossible to root out. That's one reason why it is so important for kids to grow up seeing all kinds of people represented in the media in positive roles, and also why it is so important to make sure their schools, communities, etc., are multiracial and multicultural. They need to grow up seeing those who are not just like them on the surface as members of their own community or "tribe" rather than as part of an alien and hostile out group.