Racism, Prejudice and Genetics - today's Taboo

The amount of political and socially charged opinions, and just how important those opinions happen to be, has created a climate of near censorship, socially imposed and even more taboo than talking about sex today.

It will be interesting for those in the future to know, that one who expresses their opinions about race and religion is at risk, not only in the public forum of the internet, but in semi private bedrooms and ultra private boardrooms across the country.

I dont think this socially imposed censorship should be the rule of the day. I believe in free speech as the method to resolve issues and conflicts in a non-violent manner. And the oppression of such speech is why we still have such difficulty with this issue, some 200 years later.

I have a unique perspective regarding race relations, to say the least.

Yes, everyone has their story, but my life happens to be uniquely poised to think about and understand issues of race and prejudice.

In short, I was reared in an outspoken Atheist household living in the heart of conservative Utah, among a strong majority of Mormon families just outside of Salt lake city. Nearly everyone we knew was Mormon.. all he neighbors, the butcher, gas station guy, school teacher, police chief.. we were the only Atheist family that I knew of, at the innocent age of 5 found myself bullied by the local kids for being different. My parents encountered the prejudice in a more direct manor, causing our whole family to pack up and move out to California.. for religious freedom in 1974.

As my father often worked abroad, I had the opportunity to live in South Africa and Botswana in the middle of Apartheid.

Moving back to the states, I found the multicultural like to be more interesting, so I moved to the east bay area: a place where, if you pick a random person off of the street, you are just as likely to speak to someone from hundreds of different possible countries.. way to many to list.

And it is this diversity that not only was fascinating to me, but I could see was somehow a binding force, or some kind of identity or badge of honor. As a result of so many cultures in such a small area, it is so easy to enjoy many different cultures in complete on any given day: the food, clothes, language, music, song, stories, lifestyle, perspective.. its absolutely fascinating and enriching to me.

And, unfortunately, on this wonderful tapestry of cultures, a half-assed scrawl of pre-pubecent tagging.. namely the concept of power, competition, fear, violence, gangs and racism.. scrawled all over such a beautiful work of cultural art that is the bay area.

You can tell, Im a little bit wishful that the fantasy of ethnic harmony will come to my town.

In the mean time, it serves as yet another interesting environment to further my understanding of Prejudice and Racism.

Since WWII, understandably, there has been a hesitancy to talk about the genetic differences between us, as thought we would like them to not exist. I happen to think that is what makes us interesting and strong, as I was saying, but others, I think, would like us to actually all be the same, not just 'created equal' under the god(s), state, or social more.  But the fact is, we are all different, either by design or accident.

Setting race aside for the moment, everyone knows that some of us are good with numbers, some have a way with words, others with movement, or music.. seemingly many skills are independent of eachother.. might have someone who is a skilled pianist who cant dance or balance his checkbook for example.. but there are many around us. Very few of us, if any, have exactly the same "propensity" for all the differing skills there are to be had. (yes I know propensity is charged)

We all know that, at 5 9, from a line of shorter men, my opportunity to high jump over 7ft is not forthcoming.

There is a lot of debate about how much some of our various skills come from Genetic traits passed on from by our ancestors, or learned in essence from the world around us.

It makes sense to me, that some skills are nearly all Genetic, others nearly all learned, and most somewhere in between.

I assume all the various skills one can posses, if you actually had the information about their derivation in this respect, and mapped it all out, would show a wide distribution of possible sources for our traits.

So, if some traits are nearly all Genetic, like my ability to high jump 7', you can assume I wont be able to learn the behavior no matter how much I practice the Fosbury flop.

So, some traits, like playing Chess for example, is to me, clearly a mixture of learned and genetically expressed behavior, as most behaviors probably are.


Individuals carry genetic and learned behavior in the context of their ancestors past, and their immediate culture. We carry genes expressing similar traits as all humans, and specific traits to groups of humans with whom evolved over tens of thousands of years of history.. Distinct Races, as we call them today, were the same humans, just distinct groups in geography, evolving minute amounts of distinct genetic traits from other groups of humans concurrently on earth.

We all know the stereotypes, White people cant jump, Asians cant drive, etc...  and we all know there is some truth to the generalities. Different Races of people have distinct genetic traits, obviously. And it is silly to think it stops at the color of ones skin.

So why cant we openly talk about the different skills, or weaknesses of certain groups of poeple?

When differences are disscussed you can have one of two reactions..

The first.. organize the various differences into a competitive landscape, a hierarchy, or valuation system of positive or negative traits associated with the ones value systems associates with various traits, or lack there of.

The second.. to see the differences as all the same, as a tapestry of different skills, talents, weakness and short-comings, all combined into a uniform emulsion of genetic expression through form, thought and action.

For those who choose the first path, discussion of genetics and race would understandably be quite troublesome. Simply the mention of different traits can cause subjugation, supremacist ideology and the like.

For those who choose the second, genetic differences are enjoyable to identify, expressed in individuals and groups alike.


Part 2 to come, feel free to comment.