What do lynching, gay-bashing, rape and child molestation have in common?
The perpetrators of these crimes see their victims as less human than themselves. That is one reason why lynchings and attacks against LGBT people are classified as hate crimes: Seeing someone as less human than one's self is, to my mind, a pretty good working definition of "hate". For that reason, I would also classify rape,child molestation and domestic violence in the same way.
And acts of aggression by motor vehicles against cyclists.
Now, I have long felt this way. But now a study from Australia could give lawmakers good reason to classify motorists who deliberately run cyclists off the road in the same category as those who harass or assault immigrants.
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology, Monash University and the University of Melbourne studied 442 people in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
The subjects were first asked whether or not they were cyclists. Then they were shown one of two images: one showing the evolution of ape to human, or another showing stages of evolution from a cockroach to human. That second image was designed, according to Alexa Debosc (the study's lead author) because some cyclists reported slurs in which they were compared to mosquitoes, cockroaches or other insects. The images were given to the subjects at random.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a far greater percentage of non-cyclists than cyclists rated cyclists as not fully human. Moreover, non-cyclists were much more likely to put cyclists on the ape or insect (depending on which image they were shown) end of the "spectrum" rather than somewhere in the middle. Whether the subjects were shown the ape-human or insect-human images, the percentages of subjects who saw cyclists as less than fully human was just about the same.
Perhaps even less surprisingly, non-cyclists were far more likely to engage in harassment of cyclists (e.g., shouting or making rude gestures at us) as well as acts of direct aggression such as throwing an object, driving too close or using a car to deliberately block or cut off a cyclist.
In their report, the researchers acknowledge some inherent biases, as young, high-income males were over-represented at least in comparison to their proportion in the overall Australian population. It's a lot easier for those with wealth or other kinds of privilege to dehumanize those who lack them: That is why, for example, members of racial minorities and immigrants are so stigmatized.
That acknowledgment, however, allows the researchers to draw the parallel I've made between the dehumanization of cyclists by motorists and of minority groups, such as Mexicans and blacks in the US or Arabs and Aborigines in Australia. That is a very important point because, as the researchers point out, it isn't enough simply to "encourage positive attitudes" in order to curb aggression. (Too many diversity programs, trainings and policies do just that or, worse, try to bully, coerce or intimidate people into such attitudes.) A better course of action, the researchers say, is to put a human face on cyclists: Just as prejudice against, say, Muslims or gays results from other people seeing them as monolithic, hostility against cyclists comes from motorists seeing us as lycra-clad law-flouting machines that whiz by them.
And reducing prejudice, and the resulting aggression, against cyclists or other groups of people could also halt a self-fufilling prophecy. People who are dehumanized and, as a result, experience prejudice and hostility too often feel resentment and even hate against those who dehumanize them. (I plead guilty to that!) That, in turn, causes victims to act aggressively, sometimes in collective ways, which helps to reinforce the attitudes of their dehumanizers. In brief, victims of hate crimes sometimes hate back.
Of course, one of the reasons why the hated hate the haters is that the haters' crimes are too often punished lightly, if at all because they are not treated as hate crimes. I can hardly think of a better example than the driver who injures or kills a cyclist by running him or her off the road and gets off scot-free.
The perpetrators of these crimes see their victims as less human than themselves. That is one reason why lynchings and attacks against LGBT people are classified as hate crimes: Seeing someone as less human than one's self is, to my mind, a pretty good working definition of "hate". For that reason, I would also classify rape,child molestation and domestic violence in the same way.
And acts of aggression by motor vehicles against cyclists.
Now, I have long felt this way. But now a study from Australia could give lawmakers good reason to classify motorists who deliberately run cyclists off the road in the same category as those who harass or assault immigrants.
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology, Monash University and the University of Melbourne studied 442 people in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
The subjects were first asked whether or not they were cyclists. Then they were shown one of two images: one showing the evolution of ape to human, or another showing stages of evolution from a cockroach to human. That second image was designed, according to Alexa Debosc (the study's lead author) because some cyclists reported slurs in which they were compared to mosquitoes, cockroaches or other insects. The images were given to the subjects at random.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a far greater percentage of non-cyclists than cyclists rated cyclists as not fully human. Moreover, non-cyclists were much more likely to put cyclists on the ape or insect (depending on which image they were shown) end of the "spectrum" rather than somewhere in the middle. Whether the subjects were shown the ape-human or insect-human images, the percentages of subjects who saw cyclists as less than fully human was just about the same.
Perhaps even less surprisingly, non-cyclists were far more likely to engage in harassment of cyclists (e.g., shouting or making rude gestures at us) as well as acts of direct aggression such as throwing an object, driving too close or using a car to deliberately block or cut off a cyclist.
In their report, the researchers acknowledge some inherent biases, as young, high-income males were over-represented at least in comparison to their proportion in the overall Australian population. It's a lot easier for those with wealth or other kinds of privilege to dehumanize those who lack them: That is why, for example, members of racial minorities and immigrants are so stigmatized.
That acknowledgment, however, allows the researchers to draw the parallel I've made between the dehumanization of cyclists by motorists and of minority groups, such as Mexicans and blacks in the US or Arabs and Aborigines in Australia. That is a very important point because, as the researchers point out, it isn't enough simply to "encourage positive attitudes" in order to curb aggression. (Too many diversity programs, trainings and policies do just that or, worse, try to bully, coerce or intimidate people into such attitudes.) A better course of action, the researchers say, is to put a human face on cyclists: Just as prejudice against, say, Muslims or gays results from other people seeing them as monolithic, hostility against cyclists comes from motorists seeing us as lycra-clad law-flouting machines that whiz by them.
And reducing prejudice, and the resulting aggression, against cyclists or other groups of people could also halt a self-fufilling prophecy. People who are dehumanized and, as a result, experience prejudice and hostility too often feel resentment and even hate against those who dehumanize them. (I plead guilty to that!) That, in turn, causes victims to act aggressively, sometimes in collective ways, which helps to reinforce the attitudes of their dehumanizers. In brief, victims of hate crimes sometimes hate back.
Of course, one of the reasons why the hated hate the haters is that the haters' crimes are too often punished lightly, if at all because they are not treated as hate crimes. I can hardly think of a better example than the driver who injures or kills a cyclist by running him or her off the road and gets off scot-free.
Franky I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of treating the harassment of cyclists as a hate crime or some form of systemic prejudice, I think it's much closer to being the everyday sort of human failure to respect other humans than a systemic and intentional kind of bigotry. If anything, most drivers who abuse cyclists deserve more pity than scorn: they have been involuntarily (for many are effectively enslaved to their automobiles - they have no choice but to drive and continue to drive for as long as they live) put in a situation that hinders their ability to behave as rational, social creatures, and provides an incentive and opportunity to behave badly. I think instead we should all be promoting cycling (and widespread acceptance of cycling) not something that we must do defensively in response to bigotry and danger, but rather something we do for the cause of human freedom and flourishing.
ReplyDeleteDavid--Thank you for your response. I don't pretend to have the answer to this dilemma. You make a really good point when you say drivers are, too often, enslaved to their automobiles and therefore cannot behave rationally. Perhaps that is different from prejudice or hatred. Then again, as the study shows, drivers who deliberately harass or endanger cyclists are doing so because they are stereotyping us.
ReplyDeleteI am old enough to come from an age when most motorists were cyclist road users before they were able to learn to drive, this is a UK perspective. The explosion of car numbers bot moving and almost permanently parked on roadsides has ruined the desire for many to contemplate trying the car bike battle zone...
ReplyDeleteThen you spend a few days in Holland and know just how stupid our politicians are! Even their royal family cycle on the roads!
Coline--In earlier posts, I have said that one of the differences between cycling in the US and much of Continental Europe is just what you describe. Here in the US, we don't yet have a full generation of motorists who are also, or have recently been, cyclists.
ReplyDelete