[Twosugars]

Harry talks with Jane Goodall, a legendary biologist, in the September issue of Vogue guest-edited by his wife Meghan
Thoughtful prince and duchess

Prince Harry: unconscious bias affects whether you are racist
Perception is learned from family, advertising or surrounding environment, the duke says

Prince Harry has spoken of how “unconscious bias” can affect racism, saying that many people fail to acknowledge their own bias due to their upbringing and environment.

The Duke of Sussex made the remarks during an interview with conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall.

He also spoke of his fears for the future of the planet, and that he and his wife planned to have a maximum of two children. Their first child, Archie, was born in May.

In the interview, printed in the September edition of British Vogue magazine which was guest-edited by the Duchess of Sussex, he and Goodall discuss how humans should live in harmony with the natural world, and aim to leave something better behind for the next generation.

Praising her work, and its focus on the younger generation, he said: “[When] you start to peel away all the layers, all the taught behaviour, the learned behaviour, the experienced behaviour … at the end of the day, we’re all humans.”

Goodall said: “Especially if you get little kids together, there’s no difference. They don’t notice: ‘my skin’s white, mine’s black’ until somebody tells them.”

Harry said: “But again, just as stigma is handed down from generation to generation, your perspective on the world and on life and on people is something that is taught to you. It’s learned from your family, learned from the older generation, or from advertising, from your environment.”

Asked whether her research on chimpanzees had affected how she felt about people, Goodall said it had shown her humans had a lot of instincts, and inherited aggressive tendencies. “They’re not learned. They’re just there,” she said.

Harry said: “It’s the same as an unconscious bias – something which so many people don’t understand, why they feel the way that they do. Despite the fact that if you go up to someone and say: ‘What you’ve just said, or the way that you’ve behaved, is racist,’ they’ll turn around and say: ‘I’m not a racist.’

I’m not saying that you’re a racist, I’m just saying that your unconscious bias is proving that, because of the way that you’ve been brought up, the environment you’ve been brought up in, suggests that you have this point of view – unconscious point of view – where naturally you will look at someone in a different way. And that is the point at which people start to have to understand.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-people-racist