He said we are all from the same race—the human race
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Recently, my anthropology professor told our class that "We are all from the same race." He had started the class in a dialogue about race, and he said we are all descendants of the original human being belonging to the Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man") species and originally from Africa. He added, "Some people have disputed feelings about this, but anthropologists' research and findings have proven this to be the most accurate; majority of our scientists agree that this is correct." The professor said most scientists believe Homo sapiens (human beings) originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
There are several competing theories of how humans evolved. "Most widely accepted is the 'Out of Africa' hypothesis. This holds that ancient humans evolved exclusively in Africa, then spread across the world in two migration waves. The migration of H. erectus across Eurasia made up the first wave. Later, our own species evolved in Africa and fanned out in a second wave 200,000 years ago. These new people totally replaced H. erectus in Asia and the Neanderthals in Europe.
Advocates of the multiregional hypothesis instead believe that early humans started to leave Africa around 2 million years ago, and were never totally replaced by recent migrants. They believe these far-flung hominids exchanged genes and interbred, slowly evolving into modern humans - in many places, simultaneously. Through gene flow, modern characteristics such as large brains gradually spread, it is suggested. Some fossils seem to support the multiregional hypothesis. H. erectus skulls in Asia, for example, have similarly flat cheek and nasal regions as people there today do" (New Scientist Magazine).
YOU COULD HAVE KNOCKED ME OVER WITH A FEATHER. Sure, I've heard some talk about this before but, for some reason, it all seemed like talk and not actual, physical data, fossils, and proven work by anthropologists, social scientists, you name the genius types; they were all a part of these discoveries. Maybe it was a sudden surprise because the professor said this in a class mostly of white students.
So, after the professor stopped spewing this blasphemy, and what I feel certain some believed to be dirty language (I'm just using sarcasm for emphasis, you'll let me know if it's working?) to a mostly Caucasian classroom, I bothered to look around at the rest of my classmates, who had been fully engaged in conversations with the professor prior to his release of this information. I felt it. It felt like he broke some unspoken rule. I naturally expected others to feel it too. Yes, the room grew silent, and the prior engaging students were now stoic. But the professor went on as if this was just old news and readily available information that we should all already have/know.
I wanted to say, "Professor X (...best to keep him anonymous for now. I'd like to keep him around, and one never knows), the information may be readily available if anyone wanted to read a book about this stuff, check the internet, or read a science magazine, but we are not yet scientists, such as yourself, and this stuff is not what anybody ever taught us in high school or repeated routinely. You must remember, Professor, it took a long time to get to the truth, and now some of us are still getting used to it. So, go slow, O Weary and Educated One." Of course, I didn't say that to him.
It was the strangest thing. I felt like I was in another time that I knew little about, except for my sudden interest and research. I'm not sure why, but I felt like I needed to show some humility towards my white classmates. But then I thought about something else. I thought about the professor, who was not an African American, and wondered about his intentions. Although, from what he was saying, he is a descendant from Africa, and so was everyone else in the class; he had already said what he meant! It was my fault for not zooming in immediately. He said, WE ARE ALL FROM THE SAME RACE–the human race. I was going nuts with this information. I was busy turning things over in my head, "So, Professor, are you saying that even though we look differently, I should feel the same about you, and Gina, classified as Caucasians? And I should also feel the same about Nona, who is classified as an African American? In other words, professor, if someone is racially discriminative towards me just because my skin looks darker, he or she is just clueless as to who we are to each other"? But, of course, I didn't ask those questions; I was just turning things over in my head, remember? It just seemed like the professor had taken the class on enough of a journey for the day, so I left well enough alone.
I'm just a youngin who likes to write. Others in our group have their own thoughts. The fact that they allow me to express mine is amazing. It's a good outlet for a head packed with too many words, questions, and storage capacity.
A Society-labeled Race
So I wondered about this some more. When I hear an ignorant comment from someone from the human race, to which I belong, like a society-labeled Caucasian woman trying so hard not to be a member of our race, it makes me wonder so loud that my thoughts become claustrophobic and then I feel a strong urge to write. That wonderful reminder in Professor X's class allows me a much broader perspective. Say, for example, the recent comment from a society-labeled Caucasian woman on CNN's Monday night special--while watching one of my favorite news shows, she said, "It was just a schoolyard prank. People are blowing this out of proportion." She was referring to the three hanging nooses found by society-labeled African American teenagers in high school. The boys had sat under a tree where some society-labeled Caucasian high school boys usually would sit. The next day, or so, the non-Caucasian labeled boys found three nooses hanging from the tree. One legal commentator said the school did very little to control the situation, which turned into criminal charges for 6 society-labeled African American boys. It's a pretty serious ordeal; one headline reads, "Black Youth Facing 22 Years for Schoolyard Fight" (ABC News).
Thanks to my professor, I can put this in the right perspective; at least I can put it in a box that makes life have more meaning. Say the society-labeled Caucasian woman believe that she is of the same race as those boys (like the professor said, we are all the same and we first originated from Africa); say the woman could actually connect in an empathetic way to the history of the horrors of lynching and the pain that her race (reminder, we are members of the same race) endured; say she could reflect on her comment and then understand that attempting to minimize what the boys and their direct community felt is a part of the problem because what they felt was tremendous hurt, dismay, insulted, anger, a feeling of being put in a less than category (as was done to members of her race brought here to be enslaved) because others were hateful and believed the boys to be inferior or deserving of the sight of hanging nooses; say she could see herself, not in the skin she wears, but in the skin of the 6 young boys and their families; for some reason, it was clear to me that her comment would have been far different. Ahh, one can hope, right? If I do you no harm, knowing you and I are from the same human race, I expect that you will do me no harm, except, if one or both of us fall in another category of specie(s). But, barring that, and for no other reason, it's nice to know that I/we belong to a race with cognition and the ability to humanly express love.
Source:
New Scientist Magazine: Instant Expert: Human Evolution
CNN: Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town
NPR: Beating Charges Split La. Town Along Racial Lines
ABC News: Black Youth Facing 22 Years for Schoolyard Fight
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Joy R. Cullum
September 4, 2007
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