R A N D O M   R A N T S HOW WRONG IS RACISM? In the late 18th and 19th centuries, scientists generally divided people into five distinct 'races': Ethiopian, Caucasian, Mongolian, Native American and Malayan. This over time gave way to usually only three, although some continued to expand on an already convoluted mythology to four or five or more so-called 'races' of people. Today after the decoding of the human genome, many if not most scientists agree there is no such thing as "races" of people, even though the United States census continues to pretend that there is. Rather, we are all one human race descended from a single female impregnated by a single male ancestor. And, virtually all scientists believe that both our original father and mother had skin decidedly on the darker side of God's great rainbow of human coloration. While American and other racists for generations have tried to use the Bible to prop up their nefarious depravities, any concept or mention of race is entirely absent from both the Old and New Testaments. That is, other than a single sentence in Zachariah, which meaning is disputed among scholars, many insisting it refers to a foreign culture and not to race as the KVJ translates. According to the New Testament, Jesus was of mixed ancestry. And, most historians agree he was very likely dark in appearance. Though there is no such thing as race, racism in all of its ugly and ungodly incarnations, is most unfortunately very real and remains with us today, as if we have learned nothing since the days of our cave dwelling ancestors. Human populations exhibit various behavioral traits and other attributes caused by cultural differences in how, when, where and by whom we are raised; ingrained into us generation upon generation, long before we are old enough to think for ourselves. One need only look at a crowd of American people today generally hat-less, compared to a crowd of Americans in 19th and early 20th Century America, where virtually everyone is wearing a hat, to see how much influence cultural identity can have on human societies. Like the Bible says, we truly think, speak and act like sheep who have gone astray. There have been actual scientific studies demonstrating that someone born with very dark skin in Africa and then growing up from a young age in a city in France, will over time speak and act in every way like the average light-skinned French man or woman. And within two or three generations, there will be no observed behavioral variation, clearly demonstrating that assumptions of so-called "racial" differences are caused by something else. Other studies demonstrate that diversity in appearance, disease immunity and other variations among people is attributable to climate, diet and societal and ethnic behavior passed down for generations. Other influences such as war and enslavement, poverty and lack of nutrition and natural resources, will also over time cause people to develop superficial differences. If we take a look at the world around us, we can clearly see there is a great variety of kinds and colors of plants and animals and, many different colors of just roses and other kinds of flowers. And yet, few of us would likely go to war over a contention that red, yellow, pink, black and red roses are somehow inferior to a white rose. Why then, do we after 10,000 years of ethics, morality and other education, continue to pretend that our so-called 'race' or nation or region, state, city, occupation or lifestyle, is somehow superior by virtue of whatever reason, compared to another? As if any of us somehow choose our own nation of birth, cultural heritage and color of skin? As if shouting "USA, USA" represents anything other than self-delusion and peer-pressure ignorance. Suppose that ten thousand people from all over the world are gathered and seated in the same auditorium. Then consider that if each person were to place their hands next to the person seated on either side of themselves, it is a very safe bet that exactly zero of those hands will be either white or black. Rather, God has created us all with various skin tone coloration somewhere in-between the two extremes, just as roses and other flowers come in a great variety and often mixed blends of colors. And, please don't try to use the above example to hide behind some silly excuse that you believe all lives matter, as a U.S. Congressman recently tried to do. Such naive responses only serve to excuse the truly despicable and wicked behavior of both a president named Trump, one named Jackson and legions of other similar racists. Consider that this congressman is one of the most vocal members of a political party that has separated and caged immigrant children and repeatedly voted to slash funding for healthcare, food stamps, affordable housing and other programs for the poor. Meanwhile, his party continues to gravely increase the mass pollution of a planet where all of our lives and the lives of our children and children's children are in a clear and present growing danger of extinction. The reason people today are carrying signs that read "Black Lives Matter" is the same reason Martin Luther King, Jr. marched on Washington and, the same reason that Colin Kaepernick would more than likely continue to kneel during the anthem if he was playing in the NFL today. They are marching and carrying signs because there are far too many ill-informed light-skinned juvenile delinquents like the congressman noted above, who while belonging to a party that pretends to care about the unborn, speak and act as if the lives of both dark-skinned people and the rest of us don't matter at all. And no doubt, they will answer to the Creator of Cesar Chavez, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, George Floyd and Harriet Tubman, accordingly. While I was never taught anything about her in school, I have never heard of any American living or deceased more courageous than Harriet Tubman. One might fairly ask, why aren't there a whole lot more statues of her and Frederick Douglass today? There are more than a few recently vacated pedestals that will do just fine. And, why is a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest anywhere other than on the scrap heap of anti-human rights history ? ? ? How wrong is racism? You decide, before the truth jumps up and bites you where the Tennessee sun don't shine. Click Here to Go Back to Contents Click Here to eMail the Author Copyright © by Richard Aberdeen.  Copyright © by Freedom Tracks Records. No part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher and signed by the author. For inquiries, please contact Freedom Tracks Records.  The essays entitled Revolution and Revolution ~ Side B are open copyright and may be reproduced and distributed as desired.