This is a most interesting piece of information: white people evolved 5500 years ago in Europe as a mutation of the (…at the time normal…) black human. This was researched and calculated by scientists at the University of Oslo.
I’m am not surprised at all, although I have always thought that white people, who evolved at times when we wandered into Europe, were an inferior mutation of the black human species which originates from Africa. “Whities” only survived because they happened to mutate in an area where the black skin was not important any more. Black skin protects against direct sunlight better that white skin does, so in a sense, blacks – as I have always thought – were physically superior to us whites because of that.
However, my insight was not entirely accurate, as our Norwegian colleagues have found out. It turns out, that white skin is not only survivable in the northern – less sunny – environment; it is also better suited to generate vitamin D under those circumstances than black skin is. So there goes my white-inferiority rationale out of the window.
In a sense, that is a real pity, because I always found the statement that “whites were inferior to blacks” very usable to provoke the people around me into an interesting discussion. The people referred to are notably very white in general, save for a handful of African, Southern-American, Antillian and Surinamese people I know. And these pale-skins are easily aroused by such a position of mine. But now that the Oslo researchers have published their findings, I can’t use that very convenient statement any more.
The discussions are all too necessary. I still hear it often enough: blacks can dance better than whites and they play better basketball too. These are racist remarks, of course, because we humans do not have a dance- or basketball gene. Neither do we have colour-specific abilities other than to effectively hide in the dark… for black people that is; and provided that they don’t smile, because that gives them away instantly. However, on a more serious note: skills like dancing and basketball are learned and they have to be trained. If a black man from some backwater in New York City can play better basketball than the average European male, than this is mainly due to an abundance of basketball courts in New York, where the black youth was hanging out half of his lifetime. This as opposed to the regularly available soccer field here in Europe where mister white-boy spends his time…
And of course, the same goes for dancing: if ones culture is saturated with rhythm and moving to it, one obviously learns it better than any Nintendo playing youngster in the western world who is mainly sitting on his bum. This is also why Italians know how to kill themselves in high velocity car-crashes better than the Dutch. Italians have a culture which has spawned faster and better looking cars – and lousy driving – for yonks….
I have to think of a new teaser to use in conversations about the differences between black and white people, because these silly discussions are still taking place regularly. (The real and only difference being, of course, the COLOUR OF THE SKIN!)
To give just one example: not so long ago, I heard one of my colleagues make the very embarrassing remark that: “blacks have different muscle-to-bone attachments than us whites…” I still wonder, whether or not this person is aware of the racist and fully misled content of his statement. Probably not, because this ridiculous “insight” is still very common. And quite frankly, I don’t expect things to turn for the better any time soon, because the majority of the people is not interested in upgrading their information on this topic anyway. It would defeat their interests too much. After all, assuming such basic differences between manifestations within what is principally the same species, opens the gates to “race”-specific thinking in the first place. We must not think that either Eugenics or Social Darwinism – and their horrible aftermath in the middle of the 20th century – have taught us humans anything.
Human genetics is an endless source of misunderstandings, which is thankfully drawn on by the common ignorants. To my great personal relief, I belong to the other camp and I can laugh off the stupidity that most people around me have firmly lodged in their head. But what can I say? Probably, that I am a superior man.
