The Myth of Race

   A group of social scientists and geneticists got together at a recent two-day meeting sponsored by the American Anthropological Association to attempt a clarification of the concept of race. The only consensus reached was that race is a cultural construct, and that it does not exist biologically. In their draft official statement, the Association says, "Race" is a set of culturally created attitudes toward, and beliefs about, human differences developed following widespread exploration and colonization by Western European powers since the 16th century." The view that race is a biological myth asserts that the supposed differences of race became a necessity for the slave owners of the late 18th century when an anti-slavery movement was beginning to gain ground, especially in Europe. If inferiority was assigned to certain groups, it would justify their treatment as sub-humans. The concept has certainly served the privileged of society well, as it has evolved into a worldwide body of prejudgments expanded to rank people everywhere, and assign them their places in rigidly hierarchical systems. It has been used by colonial powers everywhere. It has been used among the peoples of Europe to allow those of northern Europe to view themselves as superior to those of the southern regions.
   It is all such a farce. All human groups are capable of interbreeding with each other to produce viable offspring, and throughout history, that is exactly what they have done. Our similarities, worldwide, are much greater than our differences. When 'humanity' is examined under a microscope, race is meaningful only in its absence. Investigation into the human genome confirms that humans are a rather homogeneous group. Evolutionary geneticist Joseph Graves, author of "The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America" says "there are no races in anatomically modern humans". He has, of course, a great deal to say on the topic, and it often makes for a disturbing read. Graves links the social construct of race to the development of the "survival of the fittest" theory, and the concept of "social darwinism" whereby an individual's worth was judged by how well they did in the American economy. Naturally, this meant that the Rockefellers and their ilk were the cream-of-the-crop in every way, and that the poor and the working classes were the pollutants of the societal environment. Just as we are conscious today of the need to reduce pollution, so were the elite of the early 1900's eager to tackle the same problem. It must be remembered, however, that they had assigned the ranking of contaminant to humans, and that the question of "purifying" the race could only lead to horrendous conclusions. The supposed science of eugenics was born. It rode a crest of popularity that took it into the Nazi extermination camps, before it was finally denounced, and brought to an end.
   Carrie Buck, a First Nations woman of Virginia, was the first person to be sterilized in order to begin the official eugenic undertaking of purifying the race. This aim was to be accomplished by means of sterilization of those judged to be "probable potential parents of socially inadequate offspring." These judgements were based on race and the considered characteristics of racial groups. The trial produced this famous statement, "We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the state for these lesser sacrifices. . . . It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind." Surely, reading that statement should be enough to send chills of terror down the spine of any reader with a brain.
    Harvard graduate Harry Laughlin was one of those who worked at the American Eugenics Record Office in a project undertaken to determine the national origins of "hereditary defectives". Laughlin came to the conclusion that the American gene pool was being polluted primarily by the "intellectually and morally defective" immigrants from the south and east of Europe. Laughlin's model law to deal with this situation was borrowed from heavily by the German Nazi government in 1933 when they drew up their own law to deal with the preservation of Aryan purity. Laughlin translated the German law and happily published it in "The Eugenical News". In 1936 the University of Heidelberg awarded Laughlin an honorary degree in tribute of his work in "the science of racial cleansing". When the Nazis were brought to trial after the Holocaust, one of their defense arguments was that they were simply following in American eugenical footsteps. Knowing some of this history to the social construct of race should be more than enough cause for consternation, and a rethinking of the whole construct. If anyone out there really believes in the assignation of superiority/inferiority to groups solely because of skin colour, or the shape of their nose, or eyelids, they should pause a moment. Someone who truly accepts such a notion will be working with intellectual constraints, I know; limitations that might make it nearly impossible for them to think of their world in any terms other than what they are experiencing right now, but if they will only think back to 9/11, they can see a mind-boggling example of just how quickly their world could be turned upside-down. It is time to leave behind the concept of race. It is one of the "must-do's" if our species is to survive.