“Roots of Racism” by Elizabeth Culotta: Summary and Critique

1. The Evolutionary Roots of Prejudice

• Humans instinctively categorize others into ingroups and outgroups, a tendency that appears to be deeply embedded in our evolutionary history (Culotta, 2012).
• This unconscious bias influences social interactions and often leads to discrimination before rational thought intervenes: “Your fear spiked in that dark alley before your conscious brain had even registered the young man’s skin color” (p. 825).
• Research suggests that early human survival depended on group cooperation, which also fostered suspicion toward outsiders.

2. Ingroup Loyalty and Outgroup Hostility

• Humans show strong favoritism toward their ingroups, even when these groups are arbitrarily defined: “In arbitrarily constructed, meaningless groups with no history, people still think that those in their ingroup are smarter, better, more moral, and more just than members of outgroups” (Sidanius, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 825).
• Psychological experiments show that people are more likely to trust and help ingroup members while remaining suspicious or hostile toward outsiders.
• This phenomenon manifests in social conflicts, racial discrimination, and intergroup violence worldwide.

3. The Role of Implicit Bias in Modern Society

• Studies using the Implicit Associations Test reveal that even people who consciously reject racism still demonstrate implicit biases: “This is in every single one of us, including me” (Banaji, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827).
• Experiments show that people are more likely to mistake a harmless object (e.g., a phone) for a weapon when held by an outgroup member (p. 827).
• These biases appear early in life; research on toddlers shows they associate positive emotions with their own race and negative emotions with outgroups (p. 827).

4. Primate Studies Suggest Bias is Evolutionary

• Research on rhesus macaques shows that even primates display outgroup bias, indicating that this tendency is deeply ingrained in social species (Culotta, 2012, p. 827).
• Macaques stare longer at outgroup faces and associate them with negative stimuli, reinforcing the idea that intergroup prejudice has evolutionary roots.
• Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji describes this as “core to our species” (p. 827).

5. Environmental and Social Triggers for Prejudice

• Context influences how strongly people react to outgroups; threat perception increases bias:
  • “Canadians taking tests in the dark rated Iraqis as less trustworthy and more hostile” (Neuberg & Schaller, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827).
  • Exposure to violent or fearful stimuli (e.g., a horror movie scene) heightens implicit racial bias (p. 827).
• Fear and uncertainty amplify these biases, leading to tragic real-world consequences such as the Trayvon Martin shooting (p. 827).

6. The “Warrior Male Hypothesis” and Gendered Prejudice

• Men, more than women, tend to exhibit stronger intergroup bias, likely due to evolutionary pressures favoring male coalition-building (Sidanius, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827).
• Historically, men were more likely to be involved in intergroup conflicts, shaping biases toward outgroup males as threats (p. 827).
• Black men in the U.S. experience disproportionate bias in legal and social systems, receiving harsher punishments and facing higher rates of racial profiling (p. 827).

7. Mitigating Bias: Can Prejudice Be Reduced?

• While implicit biases are deeply ingrained, they are not immutable; researchers explore ways to counteract them:
  • “Making people feel safer can moderate this bias” (Schaller, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827).
  • Exposure to diverse groups and positive interactions can help rewire automatic prejudices.
  • Conscious efforts, such as reading job applications carefully rather than skimming, help counteract bias in decision-making (p. 827).

1. Postcolonial Theory

• Reinforces the concept of “Othering”: Culotta’s discussion of outgroup bias aligns with postcolonial theorists like Edward Said, who describe how colonial powers create the “Other” to justify dominance.
• Reference from the article: “Your fear spiked in that dark alley before your conscious brain had even registered the young man’s skin color.” (Culotta, 2012, p. 825)
• Application to literary texts: Novels like Heart of Darkness (Conrad) and Things Fall Apart (Achebe) depict how colonizers and natives construct each other as the Other, reflecting the automatic biases discussed by Culotta.

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2. Critical Race Theory (CRT)

• Supports the idea that racism is systemic and unconscious: The study of implicit bias in the article reinforces CRT’s argument that racism is not just overt discrimination but is deeply embedded in social and psychological structures.
• Reference from the article: “It takes significantly longer to associate your ingroup with bad things and the outgroup with good things.” (Sidanius, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827)
• Application to literary texts: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man explore how systemic racism shapes identity and social interactions, paralleling findings on implicit bias.

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3. Psychoanalytic Literary Theory

• Explains unconscious fear and prejudice: Culotta’s argument about implicit racial fear mirrors Freudian concepts of the unconscious mind shaping behavior.
• Reference from the article: “These prejudices tap into very ancient parts of our minds, and it’s happening at a very quick, automatic level.” (Schaller, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827)
• Application to literary texts: In Native Son (Richard Wright), Bigger Thomas’s fear-driven responses to white authority reflect deep-seated, unconscious biases on both sides.

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4. Structuralism and Semiotics

• Shows that racial categorization is a constructed system of meaning: The study’s findings on arbitrary group formation align with structuralist views that meaning is not inherent but socially constructed.
• Reference from the article: “People easily form coalitions based on meaningless traits such as preferring one painter over another.” (Culotta, 2012, p. 825)
• Application to literary texts: Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease and Nella Larsen’s Passing explore how racial identity is constructed rather than biologically determined.

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5. Feminist Literary Theory (Intersectionality)

• Highlights how racial prejudice disproportionately affects men: The Warrior Male Hypothesis in the article aligns with feminist intersectionality, which examines how race and gender intersect in oppression.
• Reference from the article: “Black men are more likely to be victims of hate crimes, receive harsher jail sentences for comparable offenses, pay more money for cars—the list goes on and on.” (Sidanius, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827)
• Application to literary texts: The Color Purple (Alice Walker) and Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston) explore how racial and gender biases affect Black men and women differently.

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6. New Historicism

• Explains how historical context shapes prejudice: The article’s discussion of intergroup violence supports New Historicist views that racism must be examined in historical and cultural contexts.
• Reference from the article: “Ethnic distinctions, however, are presumably quite old.” (Boyd, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 826)
• Application to literary texts: William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird reflect historical racism rooted in longstanding social structures.

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7. Cognitive Literary Theory

• Explains how literature can reshape biases: Research in the article suggests that human cognition can override implicit bias, supporting cognitive literary theory’s argument that reading fosters empathy.
• Reference from the article: “Making people feel safer can moderate this bias.” (Schaller, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827)
• Application to literary texts: Books like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Kite Runner challenge readers’ biases by humanizing marginalized characters.

1. Overemphasis on Evolutionary Determinism

• The article heavily relies on evolutionary psychology to explain racism, potentially reducing racism to a biological inevitability rather than a complex socio-historical construct.
• Critics argue that this naturalization of bias risks excusing discrimination as an unchangeable aspect of human nature rather than a product of social, political, and economic structures.
• Example: The claim that “our central adaptation is to group living” (Brewer, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 826) can be interpreted as downplaying the role of historical and institutional factors in shaping racism.

2. Lack of Intersectionality

• The article does not fully address how race intersects with other social categories like gender, class, or nationality.
• While the Warrior Male Hypothesis suggests that men are more targeted by racial prejudice (p. 827), it fails to discuss how women of color experience discrimination differently.
• This limitation weakens the article’s applicability to feminist and intersectional studies, which emphasize the diverse and layered experiences of oppression.

3. Insufficient Engagement with Sociocultural Theories of Racism

• Culotta’s analysis lacks engagement with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Postcolonial Studies, which emphasize racism as a historically constructed and legally reinforced system of power.
• Scholars like Derrick Bell and Edward Said argue that racism is not just an evolutionary byproduct but a tool of systemic oppression.
• The article acknowledges that “ethnic distinctions, however, are presumably quite old” (Boyd, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 826), but fails to critically examine how colonialism, capitalism, and law shape modern racial hierarchies.

4. Overgeneralization of Primate Studies

• The use of rhesus macaque studies to explain human prejudice may be an oversimplification of human social behavior.
• Critics argue that human prejudice is influenced by language, culture, and ideology, which are absent in primates.
• Example: While Culotta cites that “macaques stared longer at photos of outgroup members than at ingroup faces” (Santos et al., cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827), human racism involves complex sociopolitical factors that primates do not experience.

5. Insufficient Solutions for Reducing Bias

• While the article discusses implicit bias and threat-detection systems, it offers limited practical strategies for reducing racism beyond individual cognitive adjustments.
• The suggestion that “making people feel safer can moderate this bias” (Schaller, cited in Culotta, 2012, p. 827) is valid but does not address structural racism, policy reforms, or educational interventions.
• Critics argue that changing individual biases alone will not dismantle systemic racism embedded in laws, institutions, and social practices.