Is race real?
Let’s see—if there’s one thing I’ve learned from blogging, it’s that subtlety doesn’t work well.
So I’m going with the blunt answer on this one:
Hell no!
Here’s why.
A Reminder
As outlined previously, the human genome consists of 3 billion bases (one of four kinds that go by the letters A, T, C, and G) paired with another 3 billion bases to make 3 billion base pairs, all packaged into the well-known double helix.
This collection of DNA consists of around 20,000 genes, coding for the all-important proteins that are required to build the human body.
Small changes in the genome—for instance, simply changing an A to a C—can sometimes lead to large changes in a human, occasionally resulting in diseases that can affect lifespan.
Sometimes such changes have a much smaller effect, but their importance is greatly exaggerated—things like skin color, hair color, and eye color.
When humans choose to inbreed, they might end up clustering around a large number of people who share these relatively unimportant traits.
Throw in things like a unique (or seemingly unique) language, a religion, some customs, and a regional diet—all of which are recycled throughout multiple generations—and you could believe you’re dealing with a truly distinctive set of humans.
But you’re not.
The Dig
It’s worth delving a little deeper.
Humans, as you know, are quite obsessed with creating categories. It’s how we learn.
The only issue is that we can be wrong. And that’s especially true when we’re dealing with 3 billion base pairs and about 20,000 genes. Trying to cleanly divide that amount of data into a few buckets is an impossibility.
Sure, there is variation in the genome, and certain genetic variants can be more common in one geographical location than another. But there is no variant that is found solely in Africa and never found in Europe (or the other way around). In fact, according to A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, a Namibian and Nigerian are likely to be more genetically similar to a Swede than they are to each other.
Stated another way, genetic variation between two black humans is likely to be greater than variation between a black human and non-black one. In other words, the terms black and white should be reserved for your crayon box. When applied to Homo sapiens, they are meaningless.
Certainly, you might say, there must be at least some important differences. Humans, after all, are willing to kill each other over apparent incompatibilities. Take India for example. Hindus and Muslims have made eradicating each other their hobby of choice. Clearly, in this case, the dissimilarities are real?
Uh, sorry, but it turns out that these groups are genetically indistinguishable.
How about language?! That’s easy. If you grow up in the US, you’ll speak English. Change that to Egypt and the result will be Arabic. Mongolia? That would be Mongolian. You get the point. Genetics are irrelevant in this regard.
And customs? You may choose to favor one form of animal muscle over another in your diet. Or perhaps you opt to stick to just plants. Want to add a few beats to your drum rhythms? By all means. You can even skip the drums and use a violin. Want to do a dance wearing all red? Feel free. You can even dance in your underwear. There’s only one ask—whatever you do, don’t attribute it to your genes.
Why Can’t We Move On?
So why, in the face of such clarity, does the concept of race continue to percolate throughout society?
First is the standard obstinance that defines humanity, one that makes individuals more likely to believe the tales passed on by their grandparents than the more objective information delivered by intellectual strangers.
Wrapped up in this phenomenon might be a tendency toward conspiracy theories, the ones that would suggest that these intellectual strangers have a plan to clone aliens that replace humans, all the while planting microchips in drinking water to monitor their progress (or some such folly).
And finally, there are the seemingly well-intentioned folks who spend their careers highlighting the atrocities that have been committed in the name of race. But rather than focus on the nonsensical basis of the culpable social constructs, they opt to maintain the constructs and create even more arbitrary categories.
This latter endeavor is, of course, based on a human phenomenon that isn’t going away any time soon—the desire to be unique.
Given this basic reality, I’ll end with a few suggestions. If you, too, have a strong desire to stand out, rather than buy into the categories created by the uninformed, here are five actions you can take to set yourself apart in the 21st century:
- Brush up on your fire eating skills.
- Carve soap.
- Join a hot dog eating contest.
- Read a book.
- Remember that no one else on Earth has exactly the same 3 billion base pairs as you, i.e. stop trying to categorize yourself.
Any questions?
(Image courtesy Gerd Altmann)
