Human nature and self-image

Is racism something that’s learned, or is it innately endowed?

I don’t think either of those is the right answer. T here’s no doubt
that there’s a rich, complex human nature. We’re not rocks.
Anybody sane knows that an awful lot about us is genetically
determined, including aspects of our behavior, our attitudes. T hat’s
not even a question among sane people.
When you go beyond that and ask what it is, you’re entering into
general ignorance. We know there’s something about human nature
that forces us to grow arms, not wings, and undergo puberty at
roughly a certain age. And by now we know that acquisition of
language, growth of the visual system and so on, are part of human
nature in fundamental respects.
When you get to cultural patterns, belief systems and the like,
the guess of the next guy you meet at the bus stop is about as good
as that of the best scientist. Nobody knows anything. People can
rant about it if they like, but they basically know almost nothing.
In this particular area we can at best make some reasonable
speculations. I think the one I’ve outlined may be a reasonable
guess. It’s not so much that racism is in our genes; what is in our
genes is the need for protecting our self-image. It’s probably in our
nature to find a way to recast anything that we do in some way that
makes it possible for us to live with it.
It’s the same in the broader social sphere, where there are
institutions functioning, and systems of oppression and domination.
T he people who are in control, who are harming others—those
people will construct justifications for themselves. T hey may do it
in sophisticated ways or nonsophisticated ways, but they’re going to
do it. T hat much is in human nature. One of the consequences of
that can turn out to be racism. It can turn out to be other things too.
Take the sophisticated ones. One of the intellectual gurus of the
modern period in the United States was Reinhold Niebuhr. He was
called the “theologian of the establishment.” He was revered by the
Kennedy liberal types, by people like George Kennan. He was
considered a moral teacher of the contemporary generation.
It’s interesting to look at why he was so revered. I went through