Thursday 23 December 2010

Why do Black Bloggers and White Supremacist Groups Agree that "Race" Exists?

There can be no such thing as "historical racism" because "race" itself does not exist.  This is simply the finding of the most recent indisputable scientific understanding of the human genome.  There is no basis in science for the belief that we can group members of the human species into distinct "racial" subgroups that that can be identified by skin color. 

There is no genetic material that can be found in all white people but no Black people, and there is likewise no genetic material that can be found consistently in Black people but that cannot be found in people with white skin.  So the human genome simply does not and will not permit us to scientifically group humans "racially," based on skin color or geographical region of origin.

We Blacks may be more similar genetically to the "white" man across the street than we are to our Black daughter's new Black fiance.  This is what genomic science tells us, but during slavery we could not fight the belief in "race" using genomic science because the human genes, on which genomic science is based, had not even been discover.  They had not been thoroughly mapped, as they are today.

If you disagree that you may be genetically more similar to your white neighbor, then ask your self whether you would prefer to have a blood transfusion from you white neighbor or your daughter's Black husband.  If you can answer that question without knowing the blood types of each of the potential donors, then your belief in "race" has tied your mind into so many knots that you may never be able to free yourself from them.

Once we lived in scientific ignorance and the belief in "race" because we had to do so if only because every aspect of American culture and law reinforced the notion of "race." Now, with the advances in the understanding of DNA and genomic science, we live in scientific ignorance only if we choose to do so.

There have been historical efforts to dominate and enslave others of the same skin color and/or different colors, often based in an "us vs. them" mentality, with dividing lines associated with geographical region of heritage, language, and social class .

But "historical racism" cannot exist because "race" itself does not exist.  "Race" is the most discussed scientific fallacy that has no basis whatsoever in science.  What do exist are skin color, skin color groups, and geographically and/or linguistically based culture groups.  And some people and groups still have stubborn but real interests in the continued belief in the existence of "race."  Just open the newspaper on any given day and you will find hundreds of such people, some of whom and naively ignorant, but many of whom believe they benefit from the concept of "race."

When Black bloggers, for example, are in agreement with white supremacist groups on a matter of science so significant as the belief in race, then these diametrically opposed parties both need to wonder why the agree one something so fundamental but find everything else the other groups believe to be repugnant.  If you are a Black person who believes in the existence of "race", you need to ask yourself why you agree with white supremacist groups on a question so fundamental.
Francis

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