Preference

We tend to prefer people that are our family or friends over people who aren't. We also tend to favor people who are from our communities over people who aren't. More controversially, humans tend to favor other humans that belong to their race, religion, gender, or country over people outside of these larger communities. These preferences are unfair because people are not more or less valuable based on how similar they are to us. We prefer people who are like ourselves because we can empathize with them more easily than people who are different from us. For example, when there is a news story of a white kid who brought a gun to school, or committed some type of violent crime, it is treated differently than when a young person of color commits a violent crime. When it is a young white person, everyone says "how could this be happening to our children?" When it is a young person of color, it is some "other" type of person that we feel no connection to. This happens because the media is generally controlled by white people, and people feel more empathy towards others that are "like them". This example of preferring beings that are more like oneself is wrong, and so is preferring a species that is more like oneself. Can our species bias be unlearned, or is it natural?