Uncomfortable Ideas. Bo Bennett PhD

dressing like a person from another culture on Halloween. All these “displays of racism” may just be prejudicial, discriminatory, culturally insensitive, bad political decisions, or none of the above. Regardless, the moment we attach the label “racist” to them, we stigmatize them to the extent where even discussing the innocence of the ideas becomes an act worthy of being “racist.” Social norms say that we can entertain ideas that might be prejudicial, discriminatory, and even culturally insensitive, but not “racist” ideas. Those are ideas we want to avoid appearing to support or even defend in any way.

      Uncomfortable Idea: Your use of the term “racism” is almost certainly inaccurate. Racism requires the belief in the superiority of one’s own race.

      When we romanticize, we make something seem better or more appealing that it actually is. Think of the dozens of movies and television shows you have seen where the protagonist is faced with a decision: to keep his high-paying job where he will be away from his family for five days each week, or quit and spend lots of time with his family. We all know the ending. He quits his job, and we see the whole family spending some quality time together as happy as can be. Did you ever ask, “then what happens?” The kids eventually have to go to school, the wife has to take care of the kids, and now the father is unemployed at home all day binge watching ‘80s sitcoms on Netflix. The father becomes a miserable bastard with an alcohol problem; his wife leaves him, and his kids never want to see him again. The end. Admittedly, my ending is unlikely, but not any more unlikely as the romanticized endings we see on film. The reality is most often somewhere in the middle. Through expressions of culture such as movies, television, books, stories, poems, religious parables, anecdotes, and aphorisms, we unconsciously and automatically accept romanticized versions of ideas as truth. Following are some other examples of romanticized ideas. As you read this list, imagine a scene playing out describing the idea. Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Realize that how the idea makes you feel is more of a function of the value a culture puts on the idea than any inherent goodness in the idea.

      •Couples should stay together for life

      •Love is always a beautiful thing

      •Faith is good to have

      •There is a perfect someone for everyone

      •Anyone can succeed in life if they just try hard enough

      •The Constitution is a blueprint for a perfect nation

      •God is perfectly good as is all the advice in the Bible

      •People deserve what they get in life

      •Giving money to beggars is the kind and right thing to do

      Unconscious, Individual Avoidance

      Unconscious, individual avoidance occurs when a person shelters him or herself from uncomfortable ideas without even realizing it. Some examples of this kind of avoidance include common cultural presuppositions and committing logical fallacies.

      In Islamic cultures, it is presupposed that not only a god exists, but that just one god exists, and the god’s name is ALLAH, and the Koran is the word of this god. To presuppose something means to accept some idea as a fact without the need for critical examination of that idea. Some people call these presuppositions “self-evident truths,” which ironically, are only evident to those who call them “self-evident.” Often, presupposed ideas that are critically examined and found to be unworthy of acceptance could completely unravel an individual’s worldview, a society, a country, and even humanity. For this reason, cultural norms protect certain ideas by demonizing outsiders who don’t accept the idea, deem it “offensive” or “rude” to question the idea, and even make the disagreement or questioning of ideas illegal and in some cases punishable by death. In America, it is presupposed that “In God we trust,” pledging allegiance to our country is the right thing to do, and those who kill people when our government tells them to are “heroes.” The chances are, you have never given any of those ideas much thought, not because you chose not to, but because in America, these things are just a given. No critical thought required (or welcomed).

      Uncomfortable Idea: Presuppositions and “self-evident truths” are ways to avoid rational justification. We need to realize that what is self-evident to us may not be self-evident to others.

Another way we unconsciously avoid exposure to ideas is by associating ideas with stigmatized people or groups, and dismissing the idea based on that association—a version of the ad hominem fallacy also known as guilt by association. Let’s use Hitler, the classic American supervillain. How many men have you seen sportin a Hitler-style mustache? The odds are, none, outside of watching old Charlie Chaplin films. Fashion trend aside, men don’t have mustaches like Hitler’s because it would associate them with Hitler. For the same general reason, parents with last names of infamous people don’t give their children certain first names. You don’t see many young people named “Jeffrey Dahmer” or “Ted Bundy.” Besides facial hair and names, we also distance ourselves from the notorious by ideas. This is seen all the time in politics when one side of the political spectrum embraces an idea, and the other side has an immediate, and unconscious aversion to the idea due to the many cognitive biases found within group psychology¹⁷. In short, if the idea comes from our enemy, we don’t want to hear it. Unfortunately, this initial aversion combined with other cognitive biases such as rationalization, the confirmation bias, and the backfire effect, make the idea more uncomfortable and increasingly difficult to entertain. We’ll explore these ideas and many more in the following section.

      ¹ Yes, U.S. locks people up at a higher rate than any other country. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/

      ² Duncan, B. L. (1976). Differential social perception and attribution of intergroup violence: Testing the lower limits of stereotyping of Blacks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(4), 590–598. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.34.4.590

      ³ Expanded Homicide Data Table 6. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls

      ⁴ T. U. of P. L. S. S., Philadelphia, & map215.898.7483, P. 19104. (n.d.). New study by Prof. David Abrams and co-authors confirms racial bias in criminal sentencing. Retrieved from https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/2170-new-study-by-professor-david-s-abrams-confirms

      ⁵ Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.36.8.917