Racism is a mental disease, a psychosocial pathogen. At its core it is a delusion of self in relation to other.

In the wake of the latest tragedies befalling us, many explanations for the violence have been espoused. Most of the ideas about gun rights and mental illness are inherently missing the fundamental problem. Most of these attacks have been racially, socially, and sexually motivated. The idea that we are different is what has motivated the latest round of tragedies. That ideology is false; it is the same diseased thinking that was used to justify the Holocaust, Slavery, and countless other tragedies throughout human history. We, you and I, are not different. Scientists have traced homo sapiens back to a single ancestor in Africa thousands of years ago. The Bible traces humanity back to Adam and Eve and their descendants, again a single unifying ancestor. Most beliefs and mythologies have a Prime male and female. What does all of this mean? It means we are all family, cousins, brothers and sisters. So why do we think there are “others”? “Even though there is a broad scientific agreement that essentialist and typological conceptualizations of race are untenable, scientists around the world continue to conceptualize race in widely differing ways, some of which have essentialist implications. While some researchers use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits or observable differences in behavior, others in the scientific community suggest that the idea of race often is used in a naïve or simplistic way, and argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance by pointing out that all living humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and (as far as applicable) subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)

So let’s define racism. Racism (n): a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. So even in its definition we find that it is an “idea or belief” and has no inherent basis in facts. This very fact is the reason that the Nazis spent millions in propaganda and inhumane scientific testing to try and prove something that has no basis in reality. THERE IS NO FACTUAL PROOF THAT ONE “RACE” GROUP OF HUMANS IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER. Anything that says otherwise is a false lie perpetrated by ignorance and unwillingness to accept the facts. Asians are not better at math, African- Americans are not better at sports, Caucasians are not smarter, Latinos are not harder working. All these bias’s and prejudices are based on the false idea that anyone in those groups are different than the other peoples in the groups. The reality is there are bad Latino drivers, athletic Asians, calculating Africans, and kind Caucasians. In short, every virtue and vice is shared by all people no matter their melanin count or geographical birth place. It’s funny that organisms on a rock going over 2000 mph can really discriminate between who was born on which particular land mass as the planet is falling through space.

 

We are all the same biologically and we exist on the same planet, yet we spend considerable time dividing ourselves based on trivial ideas and beliefs. So how do we resolve this mental issue? First it must be acknowledged as such. Delusional disorder is an illness characterized by at least 1 month of delusions but no other psychotic symptoms, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). ^[1] Delusions are false beliefs based on incorrect inference about external reality that persist despite the evidence to the contrary; these beliefs are not ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture. Delusions can be characterized as persecutory (i.e., belief that one is going to be harmed by an individual, organization or group), referential (i.e., belief that gestures, comments, or environmental cues are directed at oneself), grandiose (i.e., belief that the individual has exceptional abilities, wealth, or fame), erotomanic (i.e., a false belief that another individual is in love with him/her), nihilistic (i.e., a conviction that a major catastrophe will occur), or somatic (i.e., beliefs focused on bodily function or sensation). Because cognitive organization and reality resting are otherwise intact in delusional disorder, it has been described in the literature as “partial psychosis. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/292991-overview

No one is born an alcoholic, but develops the traits over time and experience, a “racist”, is a victim of environment and society. No child is born racist and studies have proven time and time again that racism is a learned behavior. As a learned behavior, the cause and effect must be examined. Where is the behavior learned? Discrimination is natural; children will naturally gravitate towards kids that they like or prefer and shun or dispel those they inherently do not like, yet none of this is based on color of skin, but character and insight. Children understand someone looks different, but that is not a disqualifying factor. It is usually behavior that motivates discrimination, which one might argue should be its only litmus test. We should never judge each other by how we look, but by our behavior. Racists, knowing this, tend to point out behaviors in various cultures that conflict with their own, again a totally false argument. They tend to highlight behaviors that they themselves are guilty of, which go back to the argument of racism as a delusional psychological disorder.

So we understand that racism is a mental disorder, not a natural biological response. So who teaches it? Leadership. Those who have authority over the influenced spread their diseased ideology with the most effective contagion. This post will not highlight specific names, but it is usually those who have psychological disorders themselves and seek to manipulate others to their particular mindset. There is a benefit of the leadership, the ability to persuade the masses. Their ability to claim “superiority status” over others is highlighted by statements such as “I’m the Emperor”, “I was chosen by God”, “I was chosen by ….”. These statements are usually followed by rhetoric used to divide the populace and maintain a leadership position, because if the people are fighting internally they cannot unite and remove any true threats. A racist will never try to unite everyone because that unification challenges their delusion. This is a red flag example. If a person or leader is actively trying to divide people based on non-behavioral differences then they are a racist. If they attribute behavioral differences to one group (i.e. immigrants are criminals) without acknowledging that all groups are capable of the same actions (natives commit just as many if not more crimes), it is racist. Again, behavioral differences are not indicators of superiority/inferiority. There are pedophiles of all races, cultures, religions, and creeds. What is being stated is that this is what we should segregate and oddly we, as society, do through incarceration. Yet we should not incarcerate because of skin, culture, religion, or sexual preference, but because of harmful negative behavior.

The racist exhibits that behavior, much like alcoholism, yet people are hesitant to correct it or even address it. The “racist uncle” is sometimes the alcoholic, but neither disorders are addressed, and if so it is usually the alcoholism before the racism. Owning a gun is not a problem, but letting a racist get a gun, is tantamount to a drunk driver getting behind the wheel. It is only a matter of time before tragedy, yet as a society we frown upon the drunk driver, but not upon the racist. In short you have the right to drive, but not drive drunk. You have the right to own a weapon, but not operate it under the illusion that there is an inferior group of people to you. So some people are correct we need to focus on mental disease to fix gun violence but it needs to be highlighted that the mental disease that needs to be addressed is racism or delusional disorder.