By DemocracyRules
Some Very Surprising Facts
What is Racism?
The West now faces a new set of crises around racism. Here I will mainly deal with the Obama-related conundrums. Like all crises, this Zeitgeist is loaded with opportunity. The key problem is defining what race and racism are.
Out Of Africa
Most geneticists insist that race in humans does not exist. They are completely serious, they have been saying it for decades, and no one listens. Their opinions are based on facts, whereas our opinions are based on vague ideas. Geneticists reject the word race because genetically, there is not much “there” there. Within humans there are no known sub-species. All humans can mate with each other (or with Eliot Spitzer), and have children. Humans share the same global geographic range, can adapt to similar habitats, have the same nutritional requirements, and have huge genetic overlap with each other (roughly 99%). With effort, one can find some broad vague clustering of genetic traits which correspond to the continents Europe, East Asia, Africa, America and Australasia. However, the genetic similarities between people are huge compared to the small and highly variable differences.
There is no doubt that differences between human species did exist in the past. All humans (except Nasrallah of Hizbullah) seem to be descendants of the Cro-Magnon, also called Homo sapiens.
The Cro-Magnon have disappered, leaving only us, one human sub-species that’s called Homo sapiens sapiens. (Nasrallah might be a Neanderthal.) The best evidence is that all Homo sapiens sapiens originated in Africa, and were black.
As black Homo sapiens sapiens migrated and spread throughout the world, their skin color changed a bit, possibly so they could produce Vitamin D where sunlight levels were low. Genetic color variants like this are common in nature. Many black bears are brown, and some are cinnamon-colored.
A small number of genetic variations made some people lighter skinned. Scientists have discovered a single genetic difference in whites that is responsible for about a third of the European whitening effect. A different small set of genetic differences lightened skin to make people look Asian. These were not albinos, the first light-colored variants were normal humans, they just looked lighter. (In my fantasies, they all looked like Haley Berry). Two sets of genetic variations produced lighter skin types, Europeans and Asians. (Another mutation may have produced Michael Jackson, but scientists are still investigating.)
So if skin color differs across our species, do other things differ, like intelligence, the ability to dance the limbo, or the occasional tendency to say “ooga booga”? Probably not, and data is still being collected. Recently the world’s most famous living geneticist, James D. Watson, said blacks are dumber than whites, and he had to quit his job. Was this fair? Well, scientists should get to say things that are true, no matter who they offend.
However, scientific research suggests that skin color has little or nothing to do with any particular individual’s intelligence potential. If an indigenous tribal child from Uganda was raised by white New York stockbroker parents, her mind would become pretty indistinguishable from her stockbroker parents. She would probably also sell short, over-promote dog stocks, and act like Broadway is the center of the universe.
But it’s not so easy to dismiss Watson’s comments outright. American youth who hang out at the mall, skip school, idolize rap, engage in petty theft, use drugs, and eulogize “gangsta” are not being very bright, no matter what color their skin is.
“Virtual Race”
So if there is no such thing as race, then how can we have racism? This is where the sociologists and social psychologists take over, and they can pretty easily prove that humans can and do dislike other humans because of their “race”. I call it “Virtual Race” because it really exists, but only in our minds.
Vertebrates all tend to group things, and humans, with big brains and nuanced language, group a lot of things. Humans just made up the concept of race because some people look different from others. A black person and a white person can identify each other’s race about half a mile away (providing they’re not wearing burkas). In this sense, racism can be considered an error of cognition, where a particularly salient characteristic, skin color, gets associated with a bunch of other characteristics that are not in fact genetically related.
With Blacks and Whites, both sides then get in on the act. We not only stereotype each other, but we stereotype ourselves, and actually start behaving according to the stereotypes. We become racists about ourselves. Blacks and Whites separate ourselves from each other, and reinforce our own cultures from within, sharing values and behaviors. This makes each side more distant from the other “race”. At a party a while ago, a Caribbean woman stepped up to me and said, “Let me show you how to dance,” we both laughed, but I was glad for the help.
This means that when demographers examine how human characteristics correlate with each other, they see patterns of living that tend to group around characteristics of different “races” religions, and ethnicity. Blacks have higher school drop-out rates than whites. Whites have higher incomes. Blacks are more likely to populate inner cities, whites are more likely to populate suburbs. Mainly it seems, Blacks and Whites do these things to themselves, but is not correct to say that racist thinking is illogical. It is based partly on fact, whether we like it or not. As Condi Rice just said to the Washington Times, it’s what we do with those facts that will make things worse or better.
Consider the case of “marrying-out” among Canadian Jews. For millennia, Jews have been threatened from outside their culture, and it was safer to marry inside their faith. This also perpetuated “Jewishness” (that’s a euphemism for wearing too much jewelry and eating gefilte fish for no sensible reason). However, in places like Canada, Jews no longer feel very threatened, so many are “marrying out”. Shiksa’s (Christian women) are not so bad after all.
Lately, Jews are less stereotyped by Christians, and they also stereotype Christians less. They also stereotype themselves less. The strict virtual boundaries between Christians and Jews have begun to soften significantly, because neither side wants to enforce the boundaries. The deep concern is left to a few old-time anti-Semites and some worried-looking conservative rabbis.
Also, Asians in Canada eventually ignore most of the virtual racism baloney and go ahead to succeed very well amongst Whites. After three generations, they marry whomever they want, move to the suburbs, and start taking their kids to hockey practice. For them, the virtual boundaries are not worth enforcing.
Between Blacks and Whites, we still want to enforce the virtual boundaries between ourselves, and the reason seems obvious to me. We are distinctly different, we look different, and in the narrow human mind, that makes a big difference in how we handle the issue. The barrier seems too high. Interestingly, with Haley Barry or Obama, it does not seem so high. In other words, amazingly, the size of the perceived barrier is related to actually how black or how white we are.
With Obama’s parents, it is striking how black his father was and how white his mother was. Have a look yourself, and tell me that it’s not striking. Why is it striking? Because humans tend to group things according to how salient the differences are.
Brazilians, who are of every conceivable color and appearance, don’t seem to have much trouble figuring out who to marry. They just guess.
Racism is Normal
It's not a good thing, but it occurs in every person from time to time. Every group of people on earth who have been studied are prone to racism. The biggest problem is the failure to understand that racism is normal and it’s a continuum. It’s not an all or nothing thing. We all move back and forth across that continuum as time and events occur. There is no such thing as zero racism, that’s only a theoretical value. We are all a bit racist, more or less. So are my dogs, as I said, it’s common in vertebrates. One of my dogs has a thing about mini-schnauzers. She got attacked by one once, and now she hates them all. If a person says they’re not racist, you can stop listening and go do something else.
Strangely, Americans think they consist of two main races, when geneticists and other scientists can clearly see that there is huge genetic mingling. The crazy ‘rule’ is that if you have one drop of ‘black blood’, then you’re considered Black. (Remember, all Whites are descended from Blacks.)
George Washington Carver, the Peanut Thing, And Creativity
Every year in black history month people solemnly drag out George Washington Carver and praise him for inventing peanut butter. Don’t get me wrong, black scientists and inventors have done amazing things, but it is really strange to ignore all the other things Blacks have done for America and the world.
In addition to genetic mingling, Blacks have produced profound cultural mingling. Blacks are not an afterthought to American culture, to a large extent they ARE American culture. Name me one truly American cultural thing that was not invented by blacks. Not so easy, eh?
Ragtime, The Blues, Jazz, Scat, Swing, Gospel, Motown, R&B, Rock and Roll, HipHop, Ska, Rap, all Black inventions. Michael Jackson almost single-handedly invented the music video as we now know it. And Blacks are not done inventing music and entertainment, we can expect more in the coming centuries. For them it’s not so much a business as it is a Weltanchauung, a philosophy of life. So after we have listed all the music that American Blacks invented, is there anything that we can attribute to White Americans? Hmm, let’s see, there must be something... um, how about Neo-Celtic?
Fashion and design spawns another long list of Black innovations, including Zoot-Suits, wing-tips, dashikis, dreadlocks, Afros, 
corn-rows, pimped-out-cars, etcetera etcetera. As you can see in the photo, Capri pants may not have been invented BY Blacks, but they seem to have been invented FOR Blacks.
My central idea is that American Blacks and Whites are immensely creative. American culture and innovation comes from taking all the races and sub-cultures in the country and rubbing them together vigorously. Then things start to heat up.
Don’t Go There. Why not?
Some shocking revelations:
--Blacks have darker skins than Whites. Calling them African-Americans won’t do anything except confuse the Egyptians.
–Again, Whites and Asians are minor genetic variations from the original basic Black.
–Every group of people on earth who have been studied are prone to racism.
–Someday most humans will be light brown.
–North Africans have lighter skins than other Africans because they intermarried with whites. Some of those were white slaves they captured in Europe. Yes, that’s right, Blacks took White slaves.
–Disaffected American freed slaves started the African country Liberia. They made a mess of it, and Liberians are much worse off than American Blacks.
–If you’re Black or White, and you have no romantic interest in people of the other race, then in a very technical sense, that might be racist. But let’s not be stupid about this. Trying to be politically correct about love is a mistake. You can’t make yourself love someone, and you shouldn’t even try. If you have no romantic interest in someone, don’t date them, don’t marry them, and don’t bother worrying about it.
–Also, don’t have sex with someone of another skin tone because you’re drunk and the exotic look makes you horny. Love is based on love.
–If you’re White, and you claim you’re not racist, but you won’t live in a black neighborhood, then just admit you’re racist. Hypocrisy is an enormous waste of time and energy.
–Almost everywhere in the world, when men select a mate, they tend to prefer lighter skinned women. It’s not clear why. I don’t know how that plays out in Norway. What if your wife is transparent?
–When you’re looking for the bad guy who did it, and you announce it on TV, if he’s black, say so. You can even describe how black (or white) he is.
–No one is entitled to use victimhood to get things they don’t deserve.
--When you go to the beach with a few black and white friends, don’t pick up some bottles of SPF 30 suntan lotion for everyone. You will look like a dork.
–Racism will probably continue indefinitely in some form.
–Laughing about race and ethnicity is good for you. It breaks down virtual boundaries.
–It’s better to celebrate differences than hide from them.
-I'll leave you with this image. It's a picture of a monkey that the local Malays call "white man" (Orang Belenda). It does look a bit like Richard Nixon.
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