Race? Sort of; Racism – no!

Over the past two centuries (from the Romantic Era, if not even earlier) the world has been infected by the idea of “race”. In conventional wisdom, this has meant that disparate peoples are fundamentally different – and in its most insidious version that some (or “one”?) race is superior to all the others (e.g., Nazism).

At present we can see this mode of thinking almost everywhere. Many American MAGA (Trump) supporters hold to the “Great Replacement” theory that non-whites are taking over the United States, thereby undermining its past greatness (racial and otherwise). Britain has recently seen anti-foreigner, racist rioting in several cities. Some very religious Jews hold “Jewish superiority” beliefs, based on the Chosen People concept. (It need hardly be pointed out that if the Jews are the “Chosen People,” that would be based only on moral behavior and not on any intrinsic biological superiority – otherwise, how could Judaism accept non-Jewish converts?) And of course, anti-Semitism is racism through and through (here, too, totally misguided, given the huge diversity of Jews around the world: skin color, behavior, culture, abilities, etc.)

All this might suggest that the concept of “race” is completely false, but that’s incorrect too. Thus, it’s necessary to understand what “race” means – and especially, what it does not mean.

All humans share approximately 99.8% of the same genes. Thus, from a purely biological perspective, it is absurd to try and make any clear demarcation between this race and that race. Not only because of this huge genetic commonality, but also because the 0.2% difference is not expressed clearly between races; rather it is a difference between individual human beings. Put simply, two “Black” people can differ between themselves more than the difference between each of them and two other “White” people.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that from a comparative “racial group” standpoint there are no differences at all. This too is patently false. Last month’s Olympics offered an excellent example. The Caribbean countries have long been dominant in track & field racing, completely out of proportion to their limited population numbers. Why? Because the strongest slaves taken from West Africa hundreds of years ago were specifically sent to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean colonies, where the work was the hardest. Their descendants, as a matter of earlier “biological selection,” are exemplars of Darwin’s survival of the fittest. Much the same can be said of American blacks – not one Caucasian on the U.S. Olympic basketball “dream team.” Reverse discrimination? Affirmative action on the court? Of course not! Merely earlier genetic selection still playing itself out (pun intended).

The Jews, especially descendants from their European forebears, are a different example of such genetic selectivity. Over centuries of persecution and immigration, who would be most likely to survive as a general rule? Obviously, those who had greater intelligence (to flourish under difficult circumstamces) and/or initiative (getting out of an anti-Semitic country before it was too late). The end result: not physical prowess but rather intellectual excellence. This also was a function of Jewish culture emphasizing education. The brightest boy would be given in marriage to the daughter of the richest man in town – with a greater chance of survival and issuing forth more intelligent progeny in larger numbers.

Many “races” have distinctive advantageous traits, almost always a function of their unique (or quite different) environmental background. “Environmental” is not necessarily the physical ecology in which they evolved, although that too plays a part. Indeed, White racists should ask themselves the following question: if all humankind emerged from (Black) Africa, why are you today white? The answer: as people moved further north they received less sunlight, so that (among other things) their black skin produced less Vitamin D. The result (here comes Darwin again): those with progressively lighter skin that absorbs sunlight better than dark skin, had a biological advantage. Over many, many generations that translated into “Whiteness”. So yes, Whites are “superior” – but only in absorbing sunlight. That’s hardly a good basis for claiming “White superiority”!

Is there a solution? Can racism be expunged? Probably not completely eliminated; “otherness” is too embedded in the human psyche as I explained here several weeks ago (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-immigration-conundrum-further-thoughts-solutions/). But society can certainly do a better job teaching history, biology, ecology, anthropology, sociology, and other social sciences of relevance. To the untrained eye, these might seem to be “luxury” subject areas – not nearly as important today as computer programming, artificial intelligence, and the like. However, if we wish to keep society intact and not descend into brutal, race-related violence (rioting, political fascism, etc.), then anything that lowers racial flames can hardly be considered an educational indulgence.

The concept of “race” is not a total fabrication. But from there to “racism” of any sort is a leap far too great. Human beings have enough other ways to differentiate themselves: ideology, religion, culture et al. Getting rid of the most dangerous of all – racism – would be a good start to attaining greater social amity, if not cohesion.