Why Race Has More To Do With Inequality Than Skin Color
I’m not a fan of the idea of there being many races. The concept of multiple races has more to do with discrimination, and inequality, especially economically, than just skin color or racism. It has more to do with health, wealth, and basic human rights.
I remember explaining to a group of people that the idea of ‘black’ and ‘white’ is something that was socially constructed. It is a concept. I explained how scientists have found that we can all be traced to a few people who migrated, from Africa.
I went into detail about how we are actually all one race, and that skin tones started to vary according to the environments we found ourselves in.
The amount of melanin people developed to protect them from the sun as they moved around the world, determined their tone, so people in more cold regions, with less sun became lighter in skin tone. Genetically, we are no different.
I explained how dark skin people are more prepared for hot climates, as we see in various parts of Africa, and the opposite for lighter people, as we see in places like Norway. The first people on earth had to be a medium-brown, earthy, color.
I also answered the question ‘what happened to the darker skin people that moved around to cold climates with less sun?’ The truth is, less of them survived. Not only were they prepared for warmer climates, they did not have the same knowledge we have about being protected from the cold.
This is why most people in the world are a medium-brown complexion. It is said that a third of the world’s population are this skin tone. This medium-brown skin tone allows you to be more flexible, and easily adaptable to different environmental climates.
The book: ‘One Race One Blood’ by Charles Ware and Ken Ham explains what I have summarized in much more detail.
Now that those details are out of the way, why do I say that race has more to do with economic inequality and human rights than skin color? I think taking another look into History will reveal that:
In the 17th century, European settlers in America found that there was a growing peasantry from the bondservants they gathered through slavery. These servants were used to help cultivate the new found land in North America.
These Irish, Scottish and African slaves became the labor force, and started to rebel and riot after a period of exploitation. They were becoming difficult to control. As a result of this, those that were part of the Virginian colony legislated a class of people they call ‘white.’
A whole new class was birthed by law. Those that were of the white class were given exclusive rights, while they took rights away from those outside of this class, particularly, those they call ‘black’, who made up most of their workforce.
The term ‘white’ was never used in association with race until around the 1680s, when it first appeared in Virginia. In 1691 it was published in their law books. This was the beginning of the notion of whiteness and blackness.
This now meant that ‘whites’ could no longer be enslaved again, like they were before, and black slaves could not be free because they became less than human, or possessions. It was widely taught that God had made the whites superior to the blacks.
This concept of a ruling class being used to justify slavery and dominating others, was used as a blueprint for colonialism around the world. It went beyond race, and was practiced by other empires, such as the British, French, and Spanish.
When people ask if I have had challenges to do with race so far in my career, I tell them that I never noticed it. In my mind, white or black is a mindset, a stronghold, and a tool for discrimination.
I am not religious about the use of the word, I am just interested in the origins of words, and believe that when we speak, we should speak, and act, with understanding.
Certain words have underlying connotations that the sub-conscious mind accepts.
In this case, it is hundreds of years of programming, over 400 years. Understanding the source or having awareness, is the first step to breaking any mindset. For example, a famous study conducted on students at New York University, by John Bargh in 1996 demonstrates the power of words.
In one of the studies, these students were given a sheet of paper with scrambled sentences. The words were put together in random order. Each sentence had five words, and did not make any grammatical sense.
Students were asked to write a grammatically correct sentence, out of four of the words, for each scrambled sentence. A sentence might be ‘not do run him from’.
They were told the purpose of the study was to look for language proficiency. Then, when they finish, they should walk down the hall to be debriefed. What they never told the students is, the real study is to see how long it will take the students to walk down the hall.
This would seem random, except for the fact that one group of students had scrambled words that were all related to old age. These were words like: worried, silently, old, lonely, grey, forgetful, bingo, and wrinkle.
The other group had the words related to old age replace with non-age old specific words. Guess what? Those exposed to old related words, took much longer to walk down the hall. In behavioral economics this is called ‘priming’. The old words had primed their sub-conscious.
This is how easy it is to affect people’s behavior using carefully crafted words. Now, if we look in the dictionary we will find that the word ‘white’ has some positive, great connotations and synonyms, as opposed to the word black.
We need to re-educate ourselves and others. Then act on what we know, by developing our skills, building what I would call ‘economic literacy’, is the solution. Our public schools are failing many, from what is referred to as ethnic minorities, especially, young Afro-Caribbean males.
There is a need for understanding of personal leadership, how to locate, develop, and cultivate our unique gifts, then and serve the world with them.
Secondly, there is a need for creative problem solving to be taught as a soft skill. The world needs more problem solvers. Teaching this would include critical thinking, and learning how to take initiative, rather than just following orders.
If personal leadership and creative problem solving was taught, many of those considered to be anything other than ‘white’ would be empowered and feel less inferior or un-equal. This will contradict the mental programming that still has effects, after hundreds of years of slavery.
There is, widespread, economic enslavement that still goes on today, regardless of race. It is about the privileged, and the not so privileged.
People use the term ‘white privilege’ often, there’s another buzz word or phrase that gets thrown around. All that tells me is that being white is more than race. You can be ‘Caucasian’ and still mis-treated.
We can see evidence of this in the fact that there were Irish and Scottish slaves before the Europeans went to Africa. And they were not considered human under English law, for centuries.
I explained before how the concept of a ruling class became the blueprint for colonialism. The concept goes beyond race.
The effects of Aristocracy and ideas of ruling class spill over to today. I understand the concept of class well because here in the UK, we live in a class system. Social engineering is pretty much alive and kicking today.
When we look at the term white, as connoting a clean slate, white wash, or regular mankind, then we see the idea that everybody else has to fit into a certain norm.
A journalist by the name of Quinn Norton describes the concept of being white like this:
“White is a political and economic category. The history of whiteness demonstrates this. Groups have been integrated into whiteness as it was politically useful for rulers to do so. The Irish didn’t used to be white, nor the Italians. Non-whites have, at various times, been allowed to buy their way into the white race, with their progeny enjoying white-skin privilege.”
Without the economic issues that come from discrimination being addressed, such as poverty, it is very difficult for people to seek higher purposes, like desire for fulfillment in their work. Once our basic needs are taken care of, we feel free to look beyond the physical.
Hundreds of years of social engineering cannot be changed overnight. But, we can do something by:
1. Understanding first, and being aware.
2. Increasing our economic intelligence, reading, developing relevant soft skills and so on. As well as learning about personal leadership, and creative problem solving or critical thinking.
3. Helping to educate those around us on doing the same.
Feel free to recommend this post, and share if you think that others may benefit from reading it. You can also give me a shout on twitter, I promise not to bite:@LesliePoku
