Racism has become a hot topic since the tragedy in Charlottesville. There is widespread agreement that time has come for a dialog on race and racism. I am certain that this is an issue that is far too complicated for an 800-word column. So, I will be doing a series on this issue alone.
Let’s start with the concept of race itself. What is a race? Well, you think you have the answer. Obviously, there is a visible difference between black people, Asians, American Hispanics, and American Indians. There are also dark skinned and light skinned people of India. Are these different races?
There are Jews throughout the world, each with different outward appearances. For the most part, the outward appearance of most Jews is indistinguishable from the others living in a given location. Is there a racial difference or merely a religious difference?
Many Muslims have olive skin. Ah, but many Italians also have olive skin. How do you define that racial difference? What about the light skinned Muslims, or even the black Muslims?
These people are all different, they are all individual, and they have different backgrounds and cultures. But are they racially different? In the November 1997 edition of Anthropology Newsletter, a piece titled ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF RACE by Audrey Smedley said this:
"Contemporary scholars agree that 'race' was a recent invention and that it was essentially a folk idea, not a product of scientific research and discovery. This is not new to anthropologists. Since the 1940s when Ashley Montagu argued against the use of the term ‘race’ in science, a growing number of scholars in many disciplines have declared that the real meaning of race in American society has to do with social realities, quite distinct from physical variations in the human species. I argue that race was institutionalized beginning in the eighteenth-century as a worldview, a set of culturally created attitudes and beliefs about human group differences."
So, if there is no actual scientific distinction defining race, what is it? Here is what science does know. Around 200-thousand years ago There were different species of anthropoids roaming the earth. There were Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis. Homo Neanderthal and Denisovans. Suddenly a much more refined skeletal group, Homo Sapiens Sapiens appeared. While Neanderthals were more robust and had a larger brain case, Homo Sapiens grew to be a more technologically and culturally advanced species. Evidence has recently been discovered that Homo Sapiens may have appeared in more than one place, but the traditional school is that they first originated from a single place in Africa. Regardless of exactly where in Africa they first appeared the origin is still African.
Over the millennia, wanderlust spread these people to all points of the earth. Although DNA testing has shown that Homo Sapiens likely mated with Neanderthals, the predominant species trait remained that of Homo Sapiens. Yes, folks, we are all Africans. It doesn’t matter if your ancestors are Scandinavian, Asian or South American, THEIR ancestors were ALL African. We look different because of genetic mutations in our single species due to location. DNA analysis and global testing have identified locales where genetic mutations have occurred and can identify your recent ancestry, but the basic human genome is, for the most part, the same for every human. We all evolved from the original African ancestor.
Our characteristic differences are in fact mostly mere cultural differences and have nothing to do with actually being different humans. Race is, if anything, merely a cultural trait. So let’s quit calling it a racial divide and identify the true culprit, culture.
Throughout the world, culture has levels of economic distinction. In Europe, you have a culture of the nobility and a distinctly different culture of the low-born. While much of that difference has been slowly and painfully erased, there is and may always be a distinct cultural difference between rich and poor anywhere in the world. So now we can identify culture and economic status as the driving force for the divide we call race.
It could also be argued that education may also lead to those cultural differences. In fact, education leads to economic differences, which in turn leads to cultural differences. So we are still stuck with the cultural distinction in our differences.
In the “great melting pot” of America we have assimilated many cultures. Poor Irish and Italians came to America bringing the traditions of their homeland. They were ostracized until both they and the rest of the country assimilated this new culture. Asians came to this country bringing an entirely foreign culture. Again assimilation became the key to acceptance.
Freed slaves were the poorest of the poor. These people who had themselves been considered property suddenly found they had no property or wealth. The contentious slavery issue that had divided the country would not be settled with the Emancipation Proclamation. Those who had fought to free the slaves had no plans beyond emancipation. They weren’t about to take responsibility for feeding, housing, and educating the millions of former slaves. The slave culture was entirely foreign and repugnant to those who had never lived that kind of life. Free Americans weren’t about to assimilate that culture into theirs. Blacks, former slaves, were left to fend for themselves in a land that had no use for their class.
Fast-forward a hundred years and things began to come to a head. The civil rights movement was in high gear. Segregation was outlawed, schools were integrated, workplace equality was mandated, quotas and priorities are now granted to people of color. Yet, their economic and educational level still remains predominantly below that of other cultures. And although they are making gains, there is still an attitude that “we” aren’t doing enough for the blacks. In the black homeland of Africa, you have the same economic and cultural divide and it has nothing to do with “race.”
Okay, let’s quit calling it a “racial” divide and give it a more logical nomenclature, “cultural” divide. When viewed from this standpoint it may give us a handle to address the “divide” portion of the problem. Next, I will attempt will cover the concept of racism and racists, why it exists, who practices it, and, hopefully, how to end it.
No comments:
Post a Comment