I usually talk strictly about science and technology topics here. I touch a lot of areas within both of those realms, but until now I haven’t really gotten into anything that seems to divide us as a people so much as what we refer to as “race.” I contend not only that we shouldn’t differentiate based on race, but also that the whole concept of race is irrelevant when it comes to human beings. Stick with me here.

For what seems like forever, mankind has been broken up into either three or five races, depending on which anthropologist you listen to. If you go with the five-division approach, they break down like this …

• Caucasoid (Normally referred to as “white”)
• Negroid (Referred to commonly as “black”)
• Capoid (South African Khoisan)
• Mongoloid (Asian and Amerindian peoples)
• Australoid (Australian Aborigines and Papuans)

The thinking that such divisions exist in humans is described by the word “racialism.” I didn’t say “racism.” Read that again. It’s “racialism.” The problem with racialism is that racists will try to use it to defend the indefensible – racism.

Enter science.

Science, if given the chance, can strip away all the nonsense that fear and blind hatred generate. Science points out that differences in human beings are more about the concept of adaptation than any kind of inferiority or superiority in genetic makeup. Before we even call on science, let’s talk to our often ignored, yet rarely mistaken, friend – common sense.

Whether you believe the Biblical story of Genesis or the theory that we all arose from countless generations of random chance starting with a single-celled microbe floating in a pond, all studies point to one common fact. The first humans on earth were brown-skinned, brown-eyed, brown-haired people. Why? They lived in a part of the world that received a great deal of sunlight. Sunlight, in proper doses, is essential for life. Humans use it to manufacture vitamin D. Without vitamin D, people die. So, you have to get enough sun to penetrate your skin or else you won’t survive to have babies. No babies equals no passing along of your particular traits. If you get too much sun, your skin gets destroyed and you develop skin cancer and, again, die without passing on your genes. Brown skin works great in places where sunlight is plentiful. The skin is dark enough to shield from damaging rays while the sun is intense enough to reach just deeply enough to stimulate vitamin D production. So, early humans were brown in color – end of argument.

This setup doesn’t work as well where sunshine is less abundant or intense. As humanity spread away from the equator, people with lighter skin that allowed more sunlight to penetrate into the tissue below had an advantage. Therefore, they survived better in these less sunny areas and had children who shared their lighter toned skin.

Of course, skin color isn’t the only noticeable physical difference between people of varying ethnicities, but essentially every difference you can list can be explained in a similar fashion. They are all adaptations.

If you don’t buy that logic and are still clinging to pre-conceived notions about so-called differences in people, try thinking of it this way. Science has proven that 99.9% of human DNA is identical. In fact, there are actually more identified variations within a given ethic group than there are between examples from different ethnic groups. I’m your typical doughy white guy whose roots lead back to Ireland, Scotland and England. I don’t tan. My time in the sun is typified by the “burn, peel, freckle, repeat” cycle. Despite this, I likely have more in common, from a genetic perspective, with a dark-skinned Zaghawa guy living in Chad than I do with another white dude living down the street from me. Don’t believe me? Fine. Listen to Berkeley University.

https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/side_0_0/ethnicity_01

This means that we simply cannot divide the one singular human race based on ethnicity. Real, hard science doesn’t support it. If you want confirmation from a higher authority, check this passage out from the Holy Bible …

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

That’s right. We are ALL ONE. We are all members of the human race. Believers and atheists alike have a place of common ground here. No matter which way you slice us, we’re all humans at our core. We have differences wrought by centuries of our ancestors adapting to challenging circumstances, but we are all branches from the same root. Let’s try to live that way.

This article was written by Tilmer Wright, Jr. Tilmer is an IT professional with over thirty years of experience wrestling with technology and a proud member of the Authors Guild of Tennessee. In his spare time, he writes books. His second novel, The Bit Dance is a cautionary tale about what can happen when technology runs away from its creators. You can find links to Tilmer’s books at the following location: https://www.amazon.com/Tilmer-Wright/e/B00DVKGG4K%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_s…

His author information web site is here: http://www.tilmerwrightjr.com/

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