A Past of Racism and A Future of Science
In today’s scientifically advanced society, where the discussion of the future possibility of cloning and other genetic operations is frequent, principles of race and ethnicity emerge in scientific debate. Racial purity is something that certain groups have strived for at various times in history. For example, Nazi Germany attempted to create a “pure” Aryan race by eliminating all potential “impurities,” including Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies. This attempt at creating a “super race” could be considered an example of early eugenics, a social philosophy and scientific theory that advocates the improvement of human traits. While at first eugenics seems like a good way to eliminate suffering from diseases and flaws in human genetics, the whole idea of “breeding” humans seems entirely inhumane. Eventually, if humans try to avoid certain aspects of genetics, we may actually be committing genocide against certain ethnicities.
An interesting theory proposed by an early 20th century theosophist, Gottfried de Purucker, is that “the race of the future will be a composite, composed of the many different races on earth today. Let us also remember that all men are ultimately of one blood.” What Purucker describes is a blending of the human race, such that we are all genetically equal. Is it truly possible that all of human diverstity will converge to a single, composite race? Theoretically the answer would be yes, eventually. But as in Black No More, will people allow for such racial equality? Or will people attempt to find slight variations to distinguish “superior” races from “inferior” ones?
But really, is anyone truly “pure”? At some point or another, someone in our ancestry is likely to have “unpurified” the family tree. Whether it is just someone of a different ethnicity or nationality, most of us are definitely not 100% anything. I, for example, am some conglomeration of Eurasian ethnicities. I’m not sure of what proportions my “blood” is nor can I account for 100% of it. Some people advocate that knowing our heritage results in a strong pride for a certain group, and while I agree, I can also see the 6+ billion people on Earth as a human race, with slight variations in genetics.
Schuyler plays with this idea with the ending of Black No More, as he inverts the entire racist setting of the novel through a struggle to become as “black” as possible. If race is as easily alterable, as in the novel, why has it mattered so much in history? Skin color is simply just the cover of a book; looking solely at one’s race omits all the pages between.
An interesting theory proposed by an early 20th century theosophist, Gottfried de Purucker, is that “the race of the future will be a composite, composed of the many different races on earth today. Let us also remember that all men are ultimately of one blood.” What Purucker describes is a blending of the human race, such that we are all genetically equal. Is it truly possible that all of human diverstity will converge to a single, composite race? Theoretically the answer would be yes, eventually. But as in Black No More, will people allow for such racial equality? Or will people attempt to find slight variations to distinguish “superior” races from “inferior” ones?
But really, is anyone truly “pure”? At some point or another, someone in our ancestry is likely to have “unpurified” the family tree. Whether it is just someone of a different ethnicity or nationality, most of us are definitely not 100% anything. I, for example, am some conglomeration of Eurasian ethnicities. I’m not sure of what proportions my “blood” is nor can I account for 100% of it. Some people advocate that knowing our heritage results in a strong pride for a certain group, and while I agree, I can also see the 6+ billion people on Earth as a human race, with slight variations in genetics.
Schuyler plays with this idea with the ending of Black No More, as he inverts the entire racist setting of the novel through a struggle to become as “black” as possible. If race is as easily alterable, as in the novel, why has it mattered so much in history? Skin color is simply just the cover of a book; looking solely at one’s race omits all the pages between.
posted by Anonymous at 2:12 PM
3 Comments:
Jordan--you might be interested to know that eugenics was an important discourse long before Nazi Germany. In fact, theories of eugenics were incredibly popular in the U.S. by the turn of the century. Eugenic baby contests (for the most "fit" baby) were common at fairs around the country....scientists, doctors and social theorists encouraged people to marry "well" so as to ensure genetically superior families. Celeste Condit's _Meaning of the Gene_ is a good place to start if you're interested in these issues....
I really like what you had to say in this post, Jordan. I completely agree that no one can say they are really 100% anything. Our ancestry goes back so far that we cannot be certain who our line leads back to. The variations in our appearance would be so slight that it would be difficult to trace. Also, I don't think it really means much saying you're "pure." What does that mean? It certainly doesn't make you superior; but at the same time, neither does being mixed like Philippa. The "super baby" can't be created by choosing certain traits to be passed down. It has to be developed after birth. Finally, I really like your closing sentence. It's a good analogy.
While race is only skin deep and can be changed through medical procedures, racism is much deeper. Racism has mattered so much in history due to the human nature that instigates a superiority complex. What Schuyler shows is that racism is not a matter of skin color, but rather an idea that one group of people is better than another. In Black No More, one group was distinguished from another by skin color but the idea that whites were better than blacks never changed. Even when most of the most blacks changed to white, the knights of nordica still held racist views, as did the people of the town in Mississippi. Racism is an idea, an ignorant idea, that one group is better than another and while the conditions of what defines the superior group and what defines the inferior group may change the idea does not. That is why at the end people want to become darker, because the conditions on the superior and inferior groups changed but overall idea does not.
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