So while reading this, I couldn't help but think how what Einstein writes here about inherited cultural bias is very similar to another book I read (God Delusion), about an entirely different type of cultural bias. A bias that is even more deeply rooted than racism and one not as easy to rebuke on moral grounds.

I spent a little time thinking about this human behavior where we accept the moral and ethical teachings of our community and internalize them, almost always from a young age, without any critical analysis. These ideas become part of our identity in a sense and we defend them staunchly, we use a variety of rationalizations to justify our stance and to also avoid any self examination.

Thinking about it some more one of the reasons why it happens may be a side effect of one of the more positive human traits which is learning from others. I can see in our distant past that the young members who listened to their elders were the ones that benefited from their experience. Information like which plants to avoid while others had medicinal uses, how to find water, food, shelter, animal migration, seasonal changes. All of this information would directly benefit the members of the group who could learn and accept the information without having to test it out themselves. The ones who didn't have this trait and instead tried to go their own route were statistically more likely to meet an ugly, red berried end.

We are the descendants of those early elder-following survivors and that trait of accepting at face value what your peers and parents tell you at face value is alive and well within us. It has served us well for many generations but our inability to change internalized ideas even when they are wrong is a direct failing of the same trait.

Bottom line is that we know Racism is wrong. For my own part I feel that organized religion is no less wrong, just far more culturally acceptable. As far as I can see we need to push hard to educate why this bias exists and also why it is wrong while also accepting that entire generations of people need to age and die out before a real lasting change can come about.