Sunday, June 24, 2007

Race is a modern concept

There is no gene for race is the title of the action during equality month. The concept is American and a hit in Europe. With the multiple choice questions one learns that humans have approximately 30.000 genes. Question: On average, how many genes separate all members of one race from all members of another race? Answer: None. There are no characteristics, no traits, not even one gene that distinguish all members of one so-called race from all members of another race.
Race is a modern idea. The word race only was coined in 1508, referring to a line of kings. The ancient societies did make distinction according to religion, status, gender, class and even language. ‘Barbarians’ evolved from a Greek word referring to people who speak the language badly, physical distinctions were not a subdividing category. Most traits that we see in people are not directly linked to skin color. Those traits are inherited independently from each other: hair form, height, blood type, musical talent, intelligence, etc… If many black people have sickle cells in their blood then this is not a racial factor but is connected to the ancestors' place of origin. Since sickle cells protect against malaria, the only thing such cells tell you about the person is that the ancestors came from a region with malaria: Mediterranean, Arabia, Turkey, Southern Asia, Western and Central Africa, but not South Africa.
Slavery predates racism. And when Pocahontas traveled to the court of London in 1619 it created a scandal because she, a princess, married a commoner, beneath her station. In a feudal society, status was fixed at birth. There were even laws which forbade to dress so that one could pass for another class. The racial concept of Manifest Destiny wasn’t born yet…
The power of illusion is still strong and color blindness alone will not right the wrongs. The machine that has been developed lats you choose to be different ethnic groups and it can age and morphe you, not make you younger again. I liked myself best with some Asian influence...

1 comment:

  1. Being a linguist I can assure you that all people can produce all sounds if they have grown up in a linguistic system that has those sounds like click sounds in some African languages or certain nasal sounds in Navajo.Stupidity is spread in the general population of the earth and and has nothing to do with color, slanted eyes, being blond or having freckles. There is but one human race on earth, but many religions and cultures.

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