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Race and colour have no place in global village

[ Posted On: 2006-11-15 ]

One would think that living in the global village and the technology that goes with it, we would be distracted from colour coding and it would matter little if one was black, white or yellow.

Global interaction is also so extensive that many of the prejudices that were ascribed to people from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have largely been dismissed for what they are — stereotypes.

But this may be more academic than practical. There are many people in the world still bothered by 'black and white," which incidentally are not real colours. The application of colour to race is narrow-minded, not to mention that biologically there are no black or white people anywhere in the world. This debate has never been discussed without raising eyebrows and many times emotions and tempers.

Historically, the debate has been used to control, dehumanise and suppress people, and the results have been catastrophic, leading to great loss of life and wars. Race is the division of human kind along inheritable traits. This was valid when Columbus, Vasco da Gama and other ancient explorers were allegedly discovering other peoples of the world. But today, outside academia, the classification is not just cheeky, but also has ulterior social and or political motives.

Zoologically, a race is a sub-division of a species, whose criteria are primarily, if not exclusively anatomical or physical features. This is, of course, ironic because as far as humans are concerned, it is difficult to define race in any form of precision.

This is because humans are varied and each person is a distinct individual with a unique set of features and fingerprints, among other things. But they are at the same time so similar that they have common features such as black hair, brown eyes and shared blood groups. All human beings can also inter-breed.

'Race' remains a mystery even to scientists because its exact origin is not known. Not even fossil records have been able to shed any conclusive evidence on its origin. What is available in fossils highlights more human similarities than differences. As such, classifying people as black or white is a complete misnomer.

Differences in physical appearance have often led some people to ignorantly conclude that there are races with superior intelligence, talents and moral standards. This is a selfish way of seeking excuses for discrimination and segregation.

Alleged race differences are often accompanied by abuse of religion, culture and nationality and these have often been wrongly used to mean 'race’. In Kenya, for example, reverse psychology has often been used to make us feel guilty for calling Caucasians wazungu. Yet this is not a race issue.

Our forefathers thought that Caucasians were synonymous with missionaries, people without abode and hence their tendency to wander or 'zunguka zunguka.' This is not a race issue. It is equivalent to the reference of women who sell vegetables as Mama Mboga or the ordinary Kenyan as 'Wanjiku.'

However, the human race has been grouped into three broad categories — Africans, Mongoloids and Caucasians. These have little to do with physical territory. There are people from the Middle East, for example, who are paler than Caucasians, while Mongoloids from Central Asia are darker than Africans.

Not everyone fits in the categories. American pop star Michael Jackson, for example, has opted to move from the African classification and he could be anywhere between the so-called black and white people. There are African women who look orange, but their knuckles and elbows remain the colour of mocha (brown-black).

Nature also refuses to fit in these classifications and the products from two different races — what Apartheid South Africa called coloured — do not. Many times, nature combines African-Caucasian and picks the best of the physical traits from both worlds, resulting in outstanding beauty.

But sometimes, nature misses the beat and the products are what neither black or whites nor greys. It is best to keep the colour out.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Muthoni Thang'wa is the curator of the Karen Blixen Museum in Kenya.

| View Profile & All Articles By: Muthoni Thangwa |

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