Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1240944
PHOTO BY JAMES BIANCHI 8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 APRIL 2020 INTERVIEW It is often said that children are not born racist, but that they acquire their perceptions about ethnic diversity from their so- cial surroundings. In your ex- perience as a psychologist, how true is that of Malta today? Racism is such a prominent feature of so many human socie- ties, that it might be tempting to think of it as somehow 'natural' or 'innate'. But racism is a social construct, and therefore people cannot be born racist. Babies are, however, born with a certain disposition. Some ba- bies are more curious and open to difference, whilst other chil- dren are primordially afraid of anything that is different to them. This is an evolution- ary defence mechanism facilitat- ing our survival – which serves to protect us from danger; like- wise, it's the same reason most children fear eating anything green, or why a baby would not walk over a glass table in fear of the height. This is our autonomic threat response, which keeps us away from anything which pos- es a danger to us when we are very young and impressionable. Sometimes, anything different to what we know can seem scary, so we become averse to it. However, as humans we are then given the opportunity to grow, mature, learn and de- velop; and this is where educa- tion comes in. This is where par- enting, learning and modelling become important. It is our job as parents, adults, teachers, lead- ers, and care-givers to teach chil- dren that people who are differ- ent from us should not be feared simply for that difference. We need to educate young children that skin colour, race, ethnicity and other such fac- tors, make no difference to the character and essence of a per- son; just like we need to educate children that green veggies are not in actual fact poisonous, but actually good for us. It appears, however, that the opposite is happening. The Maltese branch of the Associ- ation for Child and Adolescent Mental Health recently issued a statement saying (inter alia) that: "[…] by propagating a discourse which is stereotypi- cal, xenophobic and demean- ing […], we are inadvertently influencing our younger gen- erations' perspectives towards cultural diversity." In your line of work, do you encounter any indications that racism is a growing phenomenon among young people? I haven't researched this, so I don't have any statistics; but as a general impression, no, I don't think that racism is a growing phenomenon amidst the young- er generation. Younger people are in fact more open to diversity, more tolerant of difference, more cu- rious about what makes us each unique and interesting as human beings. The younger generation also challenge the status quo in many ways – they tend to refuse to pigeon-hole people, or to cat- egorise people by race, colour, gender, sex or religion. Everything has become more fluid, which is both beautiful, as well as it complex. I do, however, agree that racial antipathy, or the propagation of discourse with xenophobic sen- timent in public, or even at the dinner table, can inadvertent- ly influence our children. Some children learn behaviours and attitudes through 'modelling': which is an implicit and often unconscious form of learning by which we pick up on, adopt and integrate our elders values, opinions, attitudes, without in fact digesting them and making them our own… the same way we learn how to peel potatoes, without being directly taught. However, we also have a strong population of youngsters who rebel against their elders and who choose not to conform. They choose to contradict the social undercurrents, and dare to be different. Meanwhile, the advent of social media has provided an instant platform for communication, without little in the way of re- straints or safeguards. Would you agree that this has contrib- uted to the 'normalisation' of racist discourse in Malta? I don't think racist discourse can ever be 'normalised' – well, at least it certainly shouldn't be. To the majority, such discourse will always stand out as painful and unjust. I also believe that the recent public outcry about asy- lum seekers is far more complex than the 'racist' rhetoric. Recognisably prejudiced talk may sometimes be used to in- timidate, claim the spotlight, to shock or display 'balls' or sol- idarity – and the freedom of expression presented through social media greatly compli- cates any attempts to chal- lenge it, which makes it seem 'normal'. I genuinely believe, however, Recent controversies surrounding immigration seem to have brought out an ugly side to the Maltese character. But psychologist CHER LAURENTI ENGERER warns against being too liberal with the 'racist' label: arguing that prejudice can also be triggered by genuine underlying concerns Are we losing our humanity? Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt Recognisably prejudiced talk may sometimes be used to intimidate, claim the spotlight, to shock or display 'balls' or solidarity, and the freedom of expression of social media greatly complicates attempts to challenge it