On Race:

The main problem with racial classification based on physical differences is that many people share many of the genes responsible for different physical appearances. After all, all Homo sapiens developed from the same ancestors in Africa. Therefore, our physical characteristics are for the most part quite similar. In fact, certain groups exhibit characteristics common in other groups, a phenomenon known as continuous variation. This is especially clear when recessive traits prevail and are observable. Most groups share many of the same genes that may cause certain physical characteristics, even those more common in distant gene pools.

The colonization of Africa and the Americas resulted in the first introduction of these systems based on physical characteristics. Physical characteristics have been used to categorize groups of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds but in truth there is no biological basis that supports the ecological fallacies of racism. Yet, racism has been an ongoing world problem since the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Racism for the most part has been based on skin color but not limited to other physical traits. Skin color has been the major marker used to oppress groups. It was first justified by the unsupported conclusion that black Africans were inferior in intelligence to Europeans. In reality this was a justification to deal with the demand for workers in the ever growing agricultural market of the earlier centuries. The enslavement of Africans would later be the greatest division of American life. In fact almost no genre of popular culture goes untouched by racial issues.

The last few hundred years introduced travel, imperialism and colonialism which has resulted in many cultures mingling and interbreeding. Over the course of time it has become increasingly clear that is harder to find any one group of people nowadays whose lineage has not intermingled with other groups except perhaps those that have been very ethnocentric in choosing partners. We pretty much all are the same. In fact most physical traits occur as a direct result of diet and environment. So there are just as many different physical differences as there are geographical and environmental. Over generations some traits became more dominate in some world regions then in that of others but over all, it is impossible to thus classify people based on physical characteristics because we all share them whether at a dormant genetic level or at an observable one.

It is impossible to imagine centuries of slave trade, rape and interbreeding not beginning to change the physical characteristics of the groups involved. The fact is that Indian and Africans were the majority of the population during the early colonization of this hemisphere since they made up the majority of the work force. Inevitably the oppressed began to resemble their oppressors and incidentally the hypo-descendent rule was introduced. This rule stated that anyone having any “black” ancestry no mater how far back or how characteristically they may appear “white”, were in fact of African decent. Therefore, any person born of a European and African parents was classified as black, colored, mulato, etc.

The question that now stands is how much of “white” America really is purely white? My guess would be very little, closer to none. The very construct of “whiteness” is undefined, murky, and has changed much over the years. Many of the groups that once found them selves as oppressed later found privilege in the slow integration of their group. This theory is especially true if we consider the fact that not long ago this country considered Jews, Italians, and Irish as none white. Nowadays these groups have earned “white privilege”. Judaism in fact developed close to Africa as was Sicily close to Africa. It is not a far fetched idea that these groups had intermarried over the centuries with African peoples whom had more skin pigmentation. In fact Sicilian’s have been considered dark by Italians on the mainland and inferior. Many of children born of mixed parents in the United States also maintained white privilege and their decedents have been incidentally or purposefully forgotten. This has been going on for a very long time. It would prove to be impossible to classify people based on “white pureness” because there perhaps are very few gene pools in the United States that have not interbreed with individuals of “color”. Therefore the vast majority of the American population would according to the Hyper Decent rule classify as non-white. These simple observations show that there is no accurate way of measuring race.

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