Change Your Brain Every Day - Brain Science & Racism: Is Racism Genetically Inherited? - Pt. 3 with Miles McPherson

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

Many of us classify racists as those with deep unhappiness and hatred in their hearts, but could it possibly be them some of us are more wired for racist thoughts and behavior than others? The science may surprise you. In the third episode of “Racism and the Brain,” Dr. Daniel Amen, Tana Amen, and pastor Miles McPherson discuss the role brain science and genetics play in racism.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. All right, welcome back. So we're continuing with racism in the brain, and this podcast is going to be specifically about the brain and its role in racism. So a long time ago, I learned when I was looking at scans is that there are actually certain patterns in the brain that go with people who are rigid, who are inflexible, where if things don't go their way, they get upset. And then as we saw people who were clearly racist, we're like, oh my goodness, there's a pattern in the brain for this. And it's actually very similar to people who have OCD, obsessive compulsive

disorder, where they don't check locks, but they get a thought in their head it has to be this way and anything that's not this way they can't stand it they get upset by it and so i saw it with people who are racist i also politics well if you get stuck on... You know, we haven't talked about politics, but we absolutely should in this because we are at such a political divide where if you really like what's going on

in the White House and you say it, you get attacked. And if you don't like what's going on in the White House and you say it, other people attack you. I mean, the level of hostility is unlike anything I've ever seen. But there's a brain pattern that goes with it. And so, and I think you talk about it in the book, it goes from me to you to we. Well, what is we? It's empathy. It's I can relate to your experience.

I can think about your experience. I can resonate with your experience. That's a brain function. It's the front third of your brain. It's called the prefrontal cortex. Largest in humans and any animal by far. It's 30% of the human brain, 11% of the chimpanzee brain, 7% of your dog's brain, 3% of your cat's brain. So this is the part of us.

That just made a lot of sense. It's the part of us that makes us human. And the better that thing functions functions the more connected you are not just with your own tribe but with other tribes as well so when your brains not right you're not right and so racism goes up but you also see it in the church given that you're a pastor it It's like, why are there so many churches? Because people get stuck on my way, my way. If it's not my way, then I can't stand it and I have to break off.

Wow. Yeah, you mentioned a really interesting word, too. It'd be interesting to hear your perspective on this tribe. Because, like I said before, before civilization, that's sort of how we survived. So trying to integrate tribes, you know, if you think of it from that perspective, we separate. My curiosity is why we still do it even though we know we should. We don't know. I shouldn't say we should.

But it feels like we should be more evolved, right? It feels like we should be more focused on character, and yet we still do the tribal thing. And when I was a nurse in the hospital- But when tribes combine, they become more powerful. Right. Right. They actually become safer when- But they often have a hard time because of cultural differences too. Like there are differences in how they see things. Yeah. I have a chapter in here about culture and usually we identify differences in culture for reasons to be different and separate. But all cultures are doing kind of the same thing, just a little different. Like every culture has food. Right.

Every culture has weddings. They all want their children to be safe. They want their children to be safe. They all want to pursue a job and a career, and people do it differently. And instead of saying, mine's better than yours, what can I learn from your culture? And it was a guy I wrote about here. He's a six foot three white guy and he had a sales route in low income minority neighborhoods. And his coworker said, don't go, it's too dangerous. And he said, well, that's my route. So he started going. And every time he

would get into a house, they wouldn't speak English or it was all black and he was out of place. He would always find something that they had in common. That's smart. He would look for a picture of maybe a kid playing baseball or he'd ask for a glass of water. That's brilliant. And all of a sudden, they were united. And he sold insurance, but he made friends because we're all trying to do the same thing. And so it's all about how do we honor,

this book is how can I honor your culture, you, the way you do things, and how can that make us stronger together? I was watching one of the political fights one day, which makes me crazy. I just turn the news off most of the time. But it made me step back and go, wait, underneath it all,

don't we mostly want the same things? Yes, we have some different values. But underneath, even the value, like underneath like deepest, the deepest you can go. We want safety. We want security. We want our kids to do well. We want, we want, you know, we want to be happy, right? Underneath everything. But how people think that they should get there seems so radically different. And there's a wild card to this that nobody talks about, and that's our genes and what experience does to our genes. So we know that children of the Holocaust,

they actually have more problems with depression, with fear, with anxiety disorders, even though they didn't experience. And there's this great study out of Emory where they took mice and they made them afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms. So they shocked them every time the scent of cherry blossoms was in the air. And it's classical conditioning like Pavlov's dogs. But what the researchers found that the babies of the mice that had been shocked were afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms. Their grandbabies were afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms. And so what happens in my grandparents' life actually affects me. And I have no idea. So if you'd been robbed,

raped in a fire, that actually may have generational consequences. And so I tell my patients, it's important that we deal with whatever's yours, but if it's not yours to try to understand that as well and begin to get you well because that will affect your babies and your grandbabies. We have a new granddaughter. Her name is Haven. She's gorgeous. Of course. See, baby can do anything.

You think they're amazing. But when Haven was born and when your daughter was born, little girls are born with all of the eggs they'll ever have. It's amazing. And their habits throughout their life turn on or off certain genes that make illness more or less likely in their babies and their grandbabies. So you see how important it is to get your health habits, your brain habits right, because it's not about you. It's literally about generations of you. You know, one of the things I write about in this book, the third option is about our

social narrative and the role of our social narrative, the story that defines how we see the world. And you're adding a whole nother layer of the genetic social narrative, because it's one thing to grow up with your dad saying things and your friend saying things and the media telling you things. That you input directly. And that's the only information you have. And then you have the genetic disposition to believe those things. And now you're really programmed to believe that this is the only way it is.

And this is a deep programming. This book is part of a deep programming process and tool so people can start to rethink how they see themselves and how they see other people and how they treat other people. Well, think of the children growing up today in Syria with the ISIS crazies, the Americans involved, the Russians involved, the dictator, the chronic fear and hatred that is changing their genes, which is going to change generations.

And that's why, why can't we solve, you know, the Palestinian-Israeli thing? Because it's baked into their genes. And unless we really work hard to give the people the emotional, financial, physical support, we're not going to solve this. And if we bring that closer to home, we've got people living in neighborhoods, right? I had this conversation actually with my niece. We were talking about, she has had a very chaotic, crazy, crazy life growing up. And so it's been really hard and harder than most that I've dealt with.

And we were talking about it and she like mentioned that when she sees a police officer, she instantly feels fear. And I'm like, why? I asked her why. And she couldn't sort of identify it. And then finally she said, because I've been, my dad's been arrested so many times I've been in the back of police cars. And to me that whenever I see a police officer, I'm like, but have they ever done anything to you? And she's like, no. And I'm like, but what was your dad doing when he got arrested?

And she finally was able to sort of separate it and go, because I don't want her to feel like a victim. I want her to sort of take responsibility. And so we were able to talk about it. She's like, no, my dad was regularly breaking the law. Into her mind. But she was programmed, police are bad, don't ever say anything, never tell the truth, and never ask for help. That's what she was told, actually told growing up. That wasn't the indirect message.

That's what she was told. And so it's funny. I'm like, that's so funny. When I see a police officer, I actually feel like, okay, everything's going to be okay. But a lot of it has to do with where you were raised and how you were raised. And when you talk about the issues in Syria, and I think about bringing that closer to home, we have people in neighborhoods who are terrified of the law because it has not served them in whatever way. So how do you fix that? Because that's carrying on generational as well. So that's what we're going to talk about coming up is what to do. What can you do as an individual to combat racism in yourself and in your community?

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