The Goodes and Eddies of unconscious racism

Enter Eddy McGuire, president of Collingwood, well-known broadcaster and host of Australia's Who wants to be a millionaire. Mr McGuire is generally regarded as anti-racist. In line with what we'd expect from him and someone in his role of president of the host-venue, he went up to Mr Goodes after the incident and apologised in name of the Collingwood club.

A few days later, Mr McGuire during a live radio interview, volunteers that "Goodesie should promote King Kong the musical", and when the radio-host asked him what he meant Mr McGuire went on to explain that this would be a great promotional idea and laughed at his own 'joke'.

The next day Mr McGuire apologised and he turned and twisted to find the right words.

He could have made it easier on himself and made a much stronger point if he acknowledged that he was indeed a racist. Consider the following hypothetical acknowledgement.

McGuire: "The reason I feel so bad about this, is that I have discovered that I am a racist. Only someone who is a racist would say something like that. I don't want to be a racist. I do everything I can to integrate white Australia with aboriginal Australia. White Australia has done harm to the indigenous population and as a minimum we are all obligated to show our fellow Australians the respect that everyone deserves. I am stunned to discover that despite all my good intentions, on a subconscious level I am a racist. This comes as a shock to me. I apologize to Mr Goodes and everyone who I have hurt with my remarks. I will submit myself to therapy to find out why I said what I said and how I can become the person I want to be."

Should Mr McGuire be vilified for being racist? Is he a hypocrite?

I would argue that he should not be vilified and that he is not a hypocrite.

From an evolutionary perspective we are wired to be tribal. This means that we are diffident of people that look/behave differently from our own tribe. Globalisation is, from an evolutionary perspective, much too recent for our brains and emotions to have adjusted to. It takes time for our brains and emotions to overcome the hard-wired prejudices against those who look different from us. At a conscious level we work on taming our hard-wired prejudices, but it will take time for the sub-conscious to adapt to this new reality.. After all, this fear of strangers has helped our tribes to survive throughout the eons.

Recognising that we are subconsciously racist makes us aware. Awareness is the first step towards consciously changing our brains and emotions. Assuming that we are not bigoted because we don't want to be perceived as such, because it is politically incorrect, and on the whole we appear not to be acting based on prejudices, doesn't mean that we are not prejudiced and that we do not covertly act in a prejudiced manner. The subconsciously prejudiced recruiter can unwillingly harm employer and candidate by dismissing the best candidate for a job, based on completely irrelevant criteria. On a large scale this harms society as a whole.

It requires constant vigilance of how we feel, think and act. Discovering that we are less perfect than we'd like to think of ourselves can be confronting as Mr McGuire has found out.

Racism is not an Australian issue. Although each nation/culture embeds racism in its own way, racism is a bias that is common to all humans and exists in all nations and cultures. If we want to progress as a species and start to improve the world for next generations than we would do well to look inside ourselves and become aware of the nasty heuristics that direct our thinking and behaviour.

How many of us question the 'truths' that we are fed by our parents, religions and schools? How can we improve if the fundamental 'truths' by which we perceive the word are the truths of others and not our own?