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When
God created Adam and Eve, we were never informed the color of the first
man and woman. If God was interested in color, He could have spoken it
into existence in the beginning. Indeed, it can be assumed without
contradiction that Adam and Eve were of the same color and genetic
composition. God simply created human beings in His own image. Over
time, though, human beings used color to separate those unsure of
themselves and used color to, inspite of their seemingly proclaimed
high IQ, divided and conquered nations and people.
What is a “race”? Who created race as a weapon of mass demoralization? What does race portend for all God’s children? Where did the human races come from?
According to the Bible, all human beings on earth today descended from Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives, but before then, from Adam and Eve (Genesis 1 – 11).
The bible used race interchangeably with congregation of tribes not
color. Today, however, the world has many different groups, often
called "races," with what seem to be greatly differing features, the
most obvious of which is color.
The Bible informs us on how
the population that descended from Noah had one language. The bible
also states that Noah’s family lived in one place but disobeyed God's
command to "fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1, 11:14). When the people
started building a tower to reach God and determine who God really was,
He (God) confused their language, causing a break-up of the population
into smaller groups which scattered over the then limited earth.
Modern genetics has proven that, following such a break-up of a
population and adaptation to new environments for survival, variations
in skin color, for example, is capable of evolving within only a few
generations.
Race or tribe is central to the political fabric of so many nations and it sends paroxysms of rage on each side for those on the receiving end of racism.
In the United States the salience of race, developed through the
historically central white/black conflict, is manifest in all aspects
of social life and political institutions. Today, everyone uses race, tribe, IQ measure, etc. when it favors them.
Because of interbreeding that has taken place between people, we now observe that the
biological differences between the races are not very great, thus,
making differences trivial in pursuit of which race is smarter or
better at development. Perhaps, it can be said that due to several
decades of interbreeding, the DNA of any two individuals in the world
may differ by about 0.20 percent1,3. For better traction on work in progress, anthropologists often classify people into a small number of main racial groups, such as the Caucasoid (European or "white")2;
the Mongoloid which includes the Chinese, Inuit or Eskimo and Native
Americans); the Negroid, the black Africans, African-Americans and some
Brazilians; and the Australoid, the Australian Aborigines. In America,
the racial construct now involve Latinos, Asians, American Indians, and other populations of color.
For
example, even the dumbest person in any race can believe that his race
is smarter than other races even when he knows more persons from the
other race who are smarter than in his group. Every race of human
beings has shares of highly smart, mediumly smart and extremely dumb
members in any matrix of measurement. In all these differentiations,
most human beings know that the separation or the inflection thereof is
a mere psychological way of disarming and gaining undue advantage over
one another. It is only when a whole race are psychologically defeated
to accepting inferiority or superiority without proof that a complete
deed is done.
Race,
tribe, and color when employed to measure performance make such
measurement absurd. A comparable dynamic is driving citizens in other
parts of the world to see their nations in multi-racial/tribal terms.
For instance, in Nigeria, the Igbos will bring up their ingenuity and
labor in any argument to dismantle their opponents within and outside
of Nigeria; the Yorubas will bring their entrepreneurship and financial
management skills while the Hausas will tend to sell themselves as
being better managers (leaders). Yet, these tribes never see the need
to combine each other’s strength to make the nation greater, infact;
they sometimes use it to retard each other’s progress. Concomitantly,
many in the developing world are experiencing increasing tribalism,
tribalistic activism, extremism coupled with religious violence. In
any society, race and tribe affect party politics and elections, social
movements, group consciousness, poverty policy, group conflict and
prejudice, political representation and in some developing democracy,
they affect how treasure looters share stolen loots.
Believing
that race, or interchangeably, color has anything to do with smartness
and invoking high IQ as a measure of smartness is not only moronic, it
is criminal. I know many smart White, Blacks, Chinese, etc. and at the
same time, I know so many dumb Whites, Blacks, Chinese, etc. To
question human coloration is to question God’s wisdom in allowing human
beings and animals to adapt to their environment. Afterall, the
chameleon changes color to survive in its environment and to deceive
its enemies. A person that uses color to judge human being is simply
ignorant and lack wisdom of judgment. Any vituperations on color are
simply incendiary remarks meant to cause distrust and to gain undue
advantage.
Why
does race, color, religion or tribes sip into politics and
infrastructural and human development? How does it help or destroy a
people trying to organize? How can electorates decipher the good role
of race/tribe and religion and their sinister roles? What
can we learn from racial or tribal transformation in the U.S. in
particular and the world in general about political changes?
Race,
tribe, ethnicity entered into politics primarily to facilitate
communication, develop a cohesive group for development and to help
bring about peace and tranquility in human polity. In America, race
has been shaped by political institutions since the seventeenth
century. Today as much as ever, US society is fundamentally marked by
racial inequality. That race continues to be intertwined and it is
symptomatic of a larger societal problem. Racial politics, past and
present: the way individualism and environmentalism have alternated as
influential ideologies; the paradoxical effects of geographical
concentration on the political representation of subordinate groups;
and the problem of unified group interests in a liberal democracy must
be attended to with a view to reducing tension between whites and other
colored citizens. Even in the year 2008, race politics is raring its
ugly head but in a subtle manner. Such opportune race politics is
surfacing in the Democratic contest because the two candidates are
perceived to be equally matched and there is a need to gain undue
advantage. In other parts of the world that are perceived to be
racially homogenous, tribal consciousness becomes an overriding
influence in politics.
Religion
more than race/tribe is most polarizing in politics. With race/tribe,
one can point to, at least, an individual or sets of individuals to
anchor any displeasure on but religion is a different ball game.
Religion focuses our attention on Jesus for Christians and Mohammed for
Muslims. Pastors do not fail to refocus our attentions on the ball but
that does not make our pastors infallible because our pastors are far
from being perfect. For example, my own pastor is one I respect but he
does not tell me what to do.
I
do not need to leave the church whenever I disagree with my pastor.
For those saying that the Obamas should have left their church
whenever they disagree with a sermon or a new prayer, they must be
flaky Christians. Even Jesus made some remarks that ordinary human
being would consider offensive but many still followed Him up till
today.
The
late Reverend Jerry Falwell, the well-known fundamentalist Baptist
minister, for example, made some pronouncement in his church but none
of his later day converts left his church. He (Falwell) explicitly
stated that he established law department in his Liberty University so
that he could train future Supreme Court Justices to overturn many of
the Supreme Court decisions. Surprisingly no one questioned his wisdom
in creating a university for the sole purpose of overturning Supreme
Court decisions nor did any of his followers resign. Another case in
point is Reverend Pat Robertson who asked America to assassinate
foreign heads of States contrary to US foreign policy, none of his
members resigned. So, why advise Senator Barack Obama to leave
Reverend Jeremiah Wright and/or his church? Senator Obama cannot
control the speech of his mentor just like members could not control
Falwell or Robertson. We are now in the season of political double
talk. Is it not better to stay and fight for change from within a
system than to bolt out for every disagreement?
America,
the citadel of democracy should be careful not to mix religion with
politics because the combination is deadly. America has enjoyed
relative peace and tranquility for so long and should never try
combination of religion and politics which many nation states have
regretted. The claimed superiority of one race over another has
stifled human, political and infrastructural development of a people
that accepted themselves as inferior appellations. It is therefore the
role of race/tribe and religion to be surgically employed in politics
because they are both potent destroyer of a nation and they bring no
relief to any nations that carelessly invoke them.
References
1. J.C. Gutin, "End of the Rainbow," Discover, November 1994, pp. 71-75;
2. However,
people inhabiting the Indian subcontinent are mainly Caucasian and
their skin color ranges from light brown to quite dark. Even within
Europe, skin color ranges from very pale to brown; and
3. Most of this DNA is in the nucleus of each cell, but some is
contained in mitochondria, which are outside the nucleus in the
cytoplasm. Sperm contribute only nuclear DNA when the egg is
fertilized. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother, via
the egg.
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Posted by Robot| 19.03.2008 02:21