An honest conversation about race and racism in America

tl;dr: When I was small, my mother taught me that, later in life, I would be told a lie that almost everyone believes, but I shouldn’t believe it, because it wasn’t true.

The lie was that there were two different groups of people: “white” and “black.”

She said in all the world there was not a single person that was “white” or “black,” that each individual was a rich, diverse mixture of ethnicity, with unique DNA. She told me that dividing people apart into groups based on genetic heritage was ignorant and racist.

She was right.

But in this article, I will descend into the racial muck. I will refer to people as “black” and “white” despite the fact that this is an ignorant, racist lie. I will speak in popular terms in the hope of finding a trail from the sad, divisive, racist cultural abyss in which we live, to a civilized, enlightened understanding based on science and reason.

Now, the longer version:

Race and Racism

Recently, there has been a renewed conversation about “race” and “racism” in America in news, social media, political and academic circles, dinner tables and elsewhere, sparked in part by tragic incidents in which police officers killed people in circumstances that many feel were racially motivated.

Many think these tragedies have raised awareness of a much larger, systemic problem: an ever present, pervasive racism that permeates all facets of life in the USA.

Let’s tackle this sensitive and volatile topic in the spirit of objective, scientific study, ignoring emotional, prejudicial and irrational arguments and viewpoints.

If you want a solution, you must first correctly diagnose and understand the actual problem. Otherwise your solution is highly unlikely to work.

I have found that when there is widespread misinformation, and where the topic is obscured by a powerful, non-rational cloud of emotion, misdiagnosis is a rampant problem.

Attempting to use the best methods of the world’s greatest scientists and detectives, I ask you to bear with me as we follow the trail of “racism” in the U.S. all the way to its modern day source.

The origins of racism

“Life finds a way.” — Dr. Ian Malcolm

Where did racism come from? Why are people racist in the first place?

Each species on Earth evolved in its own way in the quest to survive and thrive. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, early humanoids developed a particularly horrific and effective strategy to improve the gene pool:

Group together as tribes and try to wipe out other tribes.

The tribe who survived, whether they prevailed by brains and/or brawn, was proven to be the superior, so they reproduced and grew in numbers, while the genetic bloodlines of the defeated tribes came to a literal dead end.

In this way, the intelligence and physical prowess of the human race gradually improved throughout the eons as waves and waves of tribes of humans pitted themselves against each other to determine who would thrive and who would perish.

The trio of instinctual imperatives were honed and strengthened:

• Survive
• Reproduce
• Eliminate the weaker tribe

Through this process of winnowing out the less fit, humans gradually evolved into the amazing creatures we are today, and the concept of “us vs. them” became indelibly imprinted in our DNA.

Racism evolves

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” -Vince Lombardi

In the last few thousand years, some humans have found ways to compete without actually killing each other. Though humans are still a primitive species, some societies have succeeded in painting a veneer of civilization over our core nature of tribal instinct.

One relatively benign way to satisfy our primal need to fight and destroy the enemy is manifested in modern professional sports. The three top sports leagues in the U.S. bring in more than $22 billion annually from rabid fans who get the primal satisfaction of “killing” the other tribe (with rarely any actual killing taking place).

Ironically, the recruiting of athletes today is as close to a racism-free environment as there is anywhere in the world. Scouts and coaches could not care less whether you are brown, pink, yellow, green or purple. The only important factor is whether you can help the team win.

Mission-driven people and organizations are intrinsically colorblind.

So where is there racism in American society?

It’s easy to just answer “everywhere.”

But this kind of overly simplistic, soundbite thinking is pointless, obscuring any scientifically valid attempt to genuinely understand the problem. Inane, generalized platitudes do not lead to solutions.

If you truly want to comprehend any problem, you have to dig deep and research the real story behind the misleading slogans and lies parroted by politicians, academia and the mass media to shock you, rile you up and keep their dollars flowing.

Remember that politicians and media professionals are master manipulators, twisting stats, spreading blatant lies, playing upon people’s emotions, and influencing popular belief in whatever way benefits them while their gullible audience eats each soundbite up as absolute truth.

Herein, we are going to take the scientific approach: staying rational and unbiased, keeping an open mind, considering a theory, learning if the evidence supports or refutes that theory, continually modifying and changing our understanding, and asking questions that naturally lead to others. Only by following these questions all the way to the source can we truly understand the root of any problem.

Is there racial bias in police shootings?

Let’s try to prove the theory that police, who are 75% white on average, have racial bias, and tend to shoot more blacks than whites in similar situations.

In 2014, the FBI reported there were 4,329,195 arrests for felony crimes like murder, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, violent crime and so on where the suspects were identified as “white” or “black,” with about 66% of the suspects white and 31% black.

In the same year there were 986 fatal shootings reported by police.

We’re not considering the question of whether any of these shootings were justified. Just trying to prove our theory that police shootings target blacks more than whites.

If police had zero racial bias, and shootings happened largely in circumstances where someone is suspected of a crime like the ones above, then 31% of the suspects shot and killed would have been black (986 X .31 = 306).

Obviously, if police were more likely to kill black suspects, then the number of blacks shot would be larger than 306.

But the actual number of blacks shot in 2014 was slightly lower, at 283.

Non-racist police should have shot and killed 655 white suspects. But the reported number was 707.

The evidence supports the theory that police are more likely to shoot a white suspect than a black one.

Further support for this theory comes from this Harvard report, cited by a recent New York Times article, which showed a 22% — 24% tendency for police to shoot white suspects over black in the sample data.

This is surprising, given the media’s story that blacks are more likely to be shot by law enforcement than whites. But journalists, politicians and academics don’t do their homework. They assume, since 13% of the U.S. population is African American, and 29% of the victims of fatal police shootings are black, that this shows obvious evidence of police bias. But using percentage of the general population is an invalid metric.

Why?

Males make up 49% of the population, yet victims of police shootings are 98% male. Is this proof of anti-male bias by police?

No. The truth is that males are far more often in a situation in which they are in danger of being shot by police than females. This is also true with black males over white males.

Let’s continue the trail.

Do some ethnicities commit crimes more than others?

While blacks make up 13% of the population, the FBI reports that in 2014, blacks committed 51% of reported murders, 56% of robberies, and 38% of violent crimes.

Why?

Is it a visceral response to culturally ingrained racism and white privilege? Is it “thug culture?” Is it generational trauma of slavery from many generations ago? A “violent gene?” I have heard all of these theories raised.

My conclusion is quite different.

Continuing to dig deeper, we find there is an high correlation between poverty and crime. Data supports the common sense theory that people who make $75,000 a year don’t go out after work and mug people for purses and wallets, steal cars, or rob houses or convenience stores. The crime of theft is associated directly with poverty and unemployment.

Other, not directly economically related crimes, like domestic violence, murder, rape, assault, and hate crimes are perpetrated far more by, and on, poor people than rich people. While of course there are exceptions, poverty is, to many people, not just a simple lack of money but a psychological state of feeling like a failure, which can precipitate negative behavior.

So here’s the surprise:

When you control for poverty, almost exactly the same proportion of whites and blacks who live under the poverty line are criminals. So anyone who says blacks commit crimes at higher rates than whites have not thoroughly done their homework as we have. Higher crime rates correlate with poverty, not race.

When factoring in economics, there is no solid evidence that any racial group has a greater tendency to commit crimes.

But wait… why do black people make less money than white people?

Is racial discrimination in business responsible for the “wage gap” between white and black workers?

You’ve probably seen charts showing “whites” are paid more money than “blacks.” From these soundbite statistics, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that human resource staff and business owners who determine salaries are mostly or all racially biased and simply choose to pay white workers more than black workers.

However, this theory quickly falls apart under scrutiny.

If the people who determine salaries were racially biased, then, for example, an African American professional with a degree from a certain college, and a certain number of years of work experience, would be paid less in a similar job position than a white professional with the same education and background.

But numerous studies show that when you compare incomes of individual black and white workers with equivalent education and experience, the large wage gap between blacks and whites narrows to a tiny gap or vanishes entirely… or in some cases, reverses.

Interestingly, for whites and blacks whose parents had at least some college education, blacks earn a tiny bit more than their white counterparts in similar professions and jobs.

Then why is there a racial wage gap?

Let’s keep following the trail. We have a little ways to go, hope you are committed to finishing this journey!

While blacks with college-educated parents earn slightly more than whites, it is far more common for white workers’ parents to be college-educated, thereby skewing the numbers.

72% of black kids are raised by a single parent, while only 30% of white kids are. Kids in single parent households don’t do as well in school, so it’s no surprise to learn that 47% of black students don’t graduate from high school, while for whites it’s less than 23%.

A much smaller number of high school graduates experience long term poverty, compared to high school dropouts.

Also, married households with kids are six times less likely to live in poverty than single parent households. Two years at any college drops the likelihood of long term poverty under 1% (for households with two married parents, or without kids).

Another reason for discrepancies in pay can be understood by researching representation of various ethnic groups across professions. For example, Eastern Indians are over-represented in high paying professions like technology, finance and medicine, leading to higher average incomes.

If all the above facts are true, then it follows, mathematically, that even in the complete absence of any racial discrimination, black households should be financially much poorer than white households.

Which they are.

So what now? Should we blame the life decisions of blacks for disparities in income?

We’re not even close to the end of our trail. Bear with me…

What is “white privilege?”

“White privilege” doesn’t have a precise definition. But the only scientific way to prove the existence of “white privilege” is to show that being “white” enables you to make more money.

If whites are “privileged,” but they have no economic advantage, then this calls into question any scientifically provable value of “white privilege.”

Do “white people” make more money?

Do “white people” make more money than “people of color” in America?

Let’s find out. Here are average incomes for various ethnic groups in America:

Indian American : $86,135
South African American : $81,912
Filipino American : $76,954
Taiwanese American : $73,988
Maltese American : $72,847
British American : $72,268
Russian American : $72,179
Australian American : $72,104
Latvian American : $71,797
Iranian American : $68,028
Lithuanian American : $67,493
Lebanese American : $67,264
Chinese American : $67,211
Fijian American : $67,003
Austrian American : $66,928
Israeli American : $66,695
Melanesian American : $66,794
Japanese American : $66,443
Scandinavian American : $66,219
Sri Lankan American : $65,606
Slovene American : $65,269
Slavic Americans : $65,263
Croatian American : $64,882
Scottish American : $64,446
Icelandic American : $64,403
Romanian American : $64,390
Italian American : $64,301
Greek American : $64,227
Luxembourgian American : $63,841
Swiss American : $63,682
Belgian American : $63,526
Serbian American : $63,319
Basque American : $63,305
Polish American : $62,862
Egyptian American : $62,812
Okinawan American : $62,725
Syrian American : $62,637
Ukrainian American : $62,342
Welsh American : $62,226
Hungarian American : $62,002
Danish American : $61,920
Croatian American : $61,786
Canadian American : $61,716
Swedish American : $61,549
Bolivian American : $61,501
Macedonian American : $61,409
Pakistani American : $61,279
Hawaiian American : $60,988
Norwegian American : $60,935
Malaysian American : $60,613
French Canadian American : $60,559
Palauan American : $60,471
Portuguese American : $60,251
Slovak American : $59,954
Czechoslovakian American : $59,815
Indonesian American : $59,509
German American : $59,383
Finnish American : $59,379
English American : $59,141
Chilean American : $58,579
Irish American : $58,634
Polynesian American : $58,582
Bulgarian Americans : $58,437
Celtic American : $58,165
Cameroonian American : $57,589
Nigerian American : $57,375
Chamorro American : $57,249
Argentine American : $56,918
Armenian American : $56,674
Scotch-Irish American : $56,658
Turkish American : $56,480
Arab American : $56,433
Cajun American : $56,344
Palestinian American : $55,950
Yugoslav American : $55,702
Sierra Leonean American : $55,305
Vietnamese American : $55,132
Laotian American : $55,119
French American : $55,071
Guyanese American : $54,943
Albanian American : $54,356
Spanish American : $54,275
Dutch American : $53,985
Barbadian American : $53,978
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Americans : $53,471
Korean American : $53,154
Algerian American : $52,815
Samoan American : $52,588
Venezuelan American : $52,435
Thai American : $52,367
Kenyan American : $51,725
Ghanaian American : $51,067
Paraguayan American : $50,930
Micronesian American : $50,855
Colombian American : $50,731
Antiguan and Barbudan American : $50,341
Tongan American : $50,257
Costa Rican American : $50,197
Peruvian American : $50,179
Cambodian American : $49,870
Panamanian American : $49,834
Brazilian American : $49,830
Ecuadorian American : $49,755
Jamaican American : $49,634
Nicaraguan American : $49,335
Grenadian American : $49,097
Uruguayan American : $48,991
Vincent-Grenadine Islander American : $48,147
Jordanian American : $47,692
British West Indian American : $47,449
West Indian American : $47,373
Burmese American : $47,259
American : $46,882
Hmong American : $46,634
Belizean American : $46,453
Nepalese American : $46,351
Bangladeshi American : $46,157
Saint Lucian American : $45,073
Cape Verdean American : $44,811
Moroccan American : $44,521
Salvadoran American : $44,322
Haitian American : $44,135
Cuban American : $43,857
Pennsylvania German American : $43,788
Afghan American : $43,023
Bahamian American : $41,925
Congolese American : $41,563
Hispanic and Latino Americans : $41,534
Guatemalan American : $41,372
Dutch West Indian American : $41,029
Subsaharan African American : $40,977
Mexican American : $40,588
Ethiopian American : $40,309
Liberian American : $40,277
Senegalese American : $39,410
African American : $38,705
Puerto Rican American : $38,426
Honduran American : $37,901
Kurdish American : $35,638
Dominican American : $34,925
Yemeni American : $34,667
Sudanese American : $32,165
Iraqi American : $32,075
Mongolian American : $31,915
Marshallese American : $26,914
Bhutanese American : $17,843

As it turns out, in the top 20 income ethnicities in the U.S., there are only a small handful that most people would call “white.”

Still think people that work in HR are racially biased?

If the people who determine salaries in companies are racially biased, then why do they pay “people of color,” such as Southern Asians (Eastern Indians), or Filipinos, many of whom have darker skin than many Africans, so much more money than Irish Americans, or French Americans, who most people would classify as “white?”

If HR (Human Resources) workers are racist, how would they know to pay Iranian Americans double what they pay Iraqi Americans, when it is doubtful most HR workers could even tell the two ethnicities apart? Even if this is a giant conspiracy, where HR people get on their secret walkie-talkies every week and decide which ethnicities make more money and which make less, how can they tell Taiwanese Americans from Chinese Americans, when 98% of Taiwanese are genetically Chinese?

Obviously, the theory of racial bias when it comes to handing out paychecks is without merit.

No sane, rational person, after examining the evidence presented above, could persist in claiming there is some kind of pervasive racism in business that explains the discrepancies in income among various ethnicities.

What is the ethnic background of “white” people?

We’ve been talking about “white” people this whole time. But who are “white people”?

Do people of Dutch and British ancestry both look “white” to you? Then why do British Americans make a whopping 34% more money than Dutch Americans? Is this evidence of anti-Dutch bias in HR departments? Can they even tell the difference?

Do you consider both people of Irish and Scottish descent “white?” Lumping those two ethnicities together could be quite offensive to either one. Try walking into O’Brien’s Pub on West 46th street in New York and say loudly that you love Scottish bars like that and be prepared to be taught a swift lesson on your confusion about “white people.”

Do you consider people of British and French origin both “white?” Maybe you were sick the day they taught European history and missed the fact that these two tribes of much different racial ancestry were at war for a thousand years on and off… and still detest each other.

The British are descended from the Germanic Angles, Saxons, and Jute tribes, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, while the darker-skinned French people (Franks) hail from Central Europe. They are two distinct races genetically, and considering them both “white” shows insensitivity and an ignorance of their diverse racial history.

Who exactly are “black” people?

Some people would say that a “black” person is someone whose ancestors originally came from Africa. Yet this makes no sense, since all of us originally come from Africa.

When you study the rich ethnic diversity of Africa today, there are at least 11 distinct genetic races living in the continent that are as different from each other as races scattered across Europe or Asia.

Do you consider Brazilians and Mexicans “the same?” How about Koreans and Japanese? Of course not. Then why would you lump Sudanese, Zimbabweans, and Congolese together? Do you think the various races of people living in Africa today are somehow less deserving of your respect or attention than Latin American or Asian races?

Talking about an “African race” simply shows an ignorance of science and genetics. Africa is a continent made up of many countries and many diverse ethnicities.

What does video color correction have to do with racism?

When editing a video project, an important step in making your final project look as good as possible is the final stage of color correction.

One goal in this stage is making the skin tones of your actors look natural, and to help you accomplish this, there is a line called the “flesh line” or “skin tone line” in your vectorscope.

I’ve taught color correction to thousands of video editors, and there’s sometimes an awkward moment when a student asks “Is the flesh line for Caucasian skin? Or…”

I let the question be asked because this is my opportunity to teach these students the truth: that all human skin is the same hue.

All human skin is the same hue. But no two individuals are the same shade of it, even siblings.

As you can see, skin may be darker or lighter, but the skin hue of the darkest Nigerian and pastiest Swede are exactly the same, and the flesh line proves it.

Skin color is determined by melanin, and even between siblings, you will find variance in melanin levels, and thereby different skin hue.

The truth is that no two people have exactly the same amount of melanin, and so while all humans have the same skin hue, no two people are the identical shade of that hue.

Simply put, we are all people of color. And we are all the same color, just different shades of it.

So the whole concept of “black” and “white” people is completely fabricated?

Yes.

I definitely understand what you mean when you talk about “black” people and “white” people. This myth is pervasive, and has been perpetuated throughout many cultures and all of recorded history. But this delusion is completely fabricated.

If you believe the concept of “black” and “white” people has any more truth than the concept of the Tooth Fairy or the Bogey Man, you believe a lie.

You believe exactly the same lie slaveowners promoted to justify slavery, that there is a “black” race, and a “white” race. But this is a lie with no basis in reality.

Martin Luther King had a dream that one day, each individual would be judged on the content of their character, and not the color of their skin.

Is this a dream you believe in? Or would you rather dishonor Dr. King’s legacy and believe as the slave traders and owners believed?

The fact that “almost everyone” believes something does not make it so.

The fallacy that “because many people believe something, it must be true” is so common it has many names, including

• argumentum ad populum
• appeal to the masses
• appeal to belief
• appeal to the majority
• appeal to popularity
• argument by consensus
• consensus fallacy
• authority of the many
• the bandwagon fallacy

As a highly respected color correction professional and expert, I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is not a single human on the planet that is “black” or “white” — or even close. (Even albinos have some color.)

And genetically, every single person is of “mixed race.” There are no “human purebreds.”

Is our culture deeply ingrained with pervasive, systemic racism?

Definitely.

But it’s not in locker rooms, where coaches play athletes to win. It’s not in law enforcement, who shoot light-skinned and dark-skinned people in roughly the same proportional ratios. It’s not in business, where people with similar education and experience get paid about the same regardless of skin tone.

Racism is rampant on TV news programs, in political speeches, on college campuses, in movies and TV shows, on websites, in sermons and musical lyrics, on Facebook. Medium and Twitter.

Racism is everywhere that people persist in perpetuating the “black” and “white” lie.

Why would anyone perpetuate the myth of “black” and “white” people?

It’s easy to understand why some people perpetuate the myth: Follow the money.

When Rachel Maddow ($7 million per year income), Bill Maher ($6 million per year income), Jon Stewart ($25 million per year income), or any of thousands of other journalists get their audiences blood boiling with their divisive, racist rhetoric, they pull in huge advertising dollars for their corporate owners.

When politicians pile on to the race-baiting bandwagon, they are able to rile up strong primal impulses in people that generate votes and allow them to win elections, leading to power and money beyond most people’s dreams. And they pass laws that perpetuate and strengthen the myth for their own personal gain.

What is PSYOP?

Military weapons manufacturers work to build weapons to kill people more efficiently. But military PSYOP (short for psychological operations) personnel work to develop propaganda-based or “brainwashing” techniques to psychologically damage the enemy without killing them.

Here is the Wikipedia definition:

Psychological operations (PSYOP) are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of… organizations, groups, and individuals.

If you perceive a behavioral difference between people descended from slaves and others in the U.S., consider the massive, all-out PSYOP campaign being waged against all African-Americans by media, academia and politics.

Imagine that, from birth, you have been told, by the movies and TV shows you watch and the music you listen to, by CNN and MSNBC and the President of the United States, by your parents, by your siblings, by your teachers and friends, that because of the color of your skin, that the whole world hates you? That no one will give you a chance? That police will shoot you for no reason? That you should abandon all your dreams and ambitions, because you should have no hope of fairness or equitable treatment from anyone?

Why would you finish high school if you believed racism was so pervasive that, regardless of your level of education, no company will hire you because you are a “person of color?”

Do you think you could possibly persist in the belief that you will be generously rewarded by striving for excellence in your career when everyone tells you that will never happen because you are “black” and everyone is a racist? Do you think you would make wise choices for your life when you have been told you are powerless? That if you succeed, it is not by your own merit but because a powerful, rich “white” politician passed a law for you? That if you fail, it has nothing to do with your personal life choices and everything to do with a racist society?

Imagine that, for your entire life, all hope has been beaten out of you with the message that, since you cannot possibly make it on your own, you must live a life begging for scraps from the master’s table.

Do you think, despite the 24/7 barrage of such vicious, racist propaganda, you could somehow reject everything you’ve been told about the world since birth and develop a happy, optimistic, ambitious attitude and a humble work ethic?

Or do you think you would develop a bitter resentment, an empty sense of hopelessness, and a hatred for the mythical “white people” who are all “privileged” and born with a silver spoon in their mouths?

While these lies would cause immense psychological damage to anyone, politicians and the media do not target Eastern Indians, Filipinos, or Asians with this destructive messaging, despite the fact that they are certainly “people of color” (as we all are).

Tragically, this devastatingly effective message is being focused only upon those descended from people brought to America in chains and enslaved by force.

When you contemplate the horror this soul-destroying, evil propaganda perpetrates on its targets, do you still wonder why dropout rates, poverty rates, and crime rates are higher among the victims of this powerful, pervasive racist messaging?

We’ve now reached the end of our trail. We’ve now found the root of the problem: the media, academia, politicians and community leaders who perpetuate racism and divisiveness, and those people who support that message by believing in and perpetuating the lie.

The Racist Hall of Shame

Any news program, talk show, film or TV show that divides people by “black” and “white” is racist.

Any politician that divides people by “black” and “white” is racist.

Any community leader, religious leader, or writer that divides people by “black” and “white” is racist.

Any schoolteacher or university professor that divides people by “black” and “white” is racist.

Any person, including you, that divides people by “black” and “white” is racist.

What is the solution to racism?

Stop being racist.

Stop perpetuating the problem. See people as they are–unique individuals, no two alike, without labeling and grouping. Be the change you want to see in this world.

The game of “I’ll stop being racist when everyone else does” is evil. Refuse to play.

We end with this wonderful video by Prince Ea: