Simply Racism

There is no basis in science or biology to support the concept of race. It is purely a political and social construct. A. Blackman – Professor of Ninjology, University Of Datsrite at Indahood Ondacona

Homo Sapiens ( Black people) are believed to have migrated from Africa some 300,000 years ago. About 185,000 years ago populations of Homo Sapiens (Black people) migrated to the Middle East and to Europe, while it is believed modern people ( Black people) arrived in southern China about 100,000 years ago. Really I don’t know why they call black people everything else but the black people. We are called homo sapiens, modern people, early humans, people who came out of Africa, the seeds of humanity…. come on man. All humans are just a different shade of black people…. and dats a fact jack!! Most civilized folks view racial categories as an identity created by the socially dominant that are based on cultural or geographic differences.

Skeeter: Why did you bring me here Bill? That ninja is saying we are all the same. You gonna believe some “libel” ninja instead of Uncle Zeke… Grand Poobah of Da Unholy Rights of The Klu Klux Klan!!?
Bill: What?? Look Skeeter.. Hoss said we gotta take this course on account of that rope we hung up over the water fountain.. We pose to learn if ninja’s are sensitive… Now hush up…

It all started about 400 BC when the Greek philosopher and Father of Medicine, Hippocrates wrote, “the forms and dispositions of mankind correspond with the nature of the country.” By that he meant that the physical appearance and behavior of humans was based on their environment. If you live in a temperate climate than you were more apt to be lazy, climates that were more hostile produced people who were more vigorous and enterprising, while mountain people who lived in rugged physically challenging environments were more warlike. Flatland people who thrived in windy and well watered environment were considered unmanly and gentle. One hundred years later Emperor Julian of Rome wondered:

“Come, tell me why it is that the Celts and the Germans are fierce, while the Hellenes and Romans are, generally speaking, inclined to political life and humane, though at the same time unyielding and warlike? Why the Egyptians are more intelligent and more given to crafts, and the Syrians unwarlike and effeminate, but at the same time intelligent, hot-tempered, vain and quick to learn? For if there is anyone who does not discern a reason for these differences among the nations, but rather declaims that all this so befell spontaneously, how, I ask, can he still believe that the universe is administered by a providence?”

Beside attributing the differences of man to his environments, Julian was also questioning the Christian belief that God created all men in his image. He rejected Christianity and is known as Julian The Apostate by Catholics. An apostate is a person that rejects a religious or political belief, not to be confused with apostle which is a Christian missionary. Around 900 AD Al-Jahiz, a black Islamic philosopher also promoted the principle that the environment was responsible for the races of humankind. He cited a stony region of black basalt in the northern Najd as evidence for his theory. Najd is the geographical area around Saudi Arabia. Basalt is what is left after lava cools. I don’t want to be facetious but didn’t they have salt back in them days too? Anyways… In the 14th century, the Islamic sociologist Ibn Khaldun questioned the Talmud’s account which prescribe that the humans who had darker skin were the cursed children of Canaan, son of Ham. The first Talmud is a collection of Jewish laws written in the the second century by Rabbi Judah the Patriarch. There is more than one Talmud. Each one written by different people in different time periods. We won’t go into them because this is beyond the scope of this article. Ibn Khaldun wrote that black skin was due to the hot climate of sub-Saharan Africa. The story of Ham has been frequently used throughout history to justify the enslavement of black people. Ham’s sin was to view his father Noah without clothes. Noah was in his tent at the time and had been drinking. Now there are quite a few explanations as to why Noah would curse Ham for such a minor infraction. Some include some pretty tawdry stuff, which again is beyond the scope of this article. I like to believe that when Ham saw his father drunk and naked, instead of covering him up, he told his brothers so that his father would be humiliated and not because of some sexual encounter. After Ham told his brothers, they covered him up. So although the curse is called the “Curse Of Ham,” Noah actually cursed Ham’s son Canaan. According to some unknown entity black people are the children of Canaan. Now mind you, although Canaan was cursed, there is no mention of his skin color in the Bible and there is no mention in the Bible that the children of Canaan were black. The biblical text does not say the descendants of Canaan are cursed… This what Noah said to Ham, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren!” Over the centuries and because of interpretations by Islamic, Christian and Jewish scholars, black people became linked with the scripture as they had already been enslaved. It was used as one of the justifications of Southern Christians to enslave blacks in America.

Skeeter: I’m starting to get it now. So that ninja Hambone who lives on the other side of the tracks is a canon…
Bill: Don’t you listen to anything fool? His son is the canon!! Dats why we ain’t gonna pay anymo attention to his sass mouth… cuz his daddy is cursed with the Tomahawk…

Now around the early modern period which was the 1500’s through the 1700’s, scientist who were interested in natural history including biologist began engaging in a new trend which was the classification, organization and systematic study of the plant and animal world. They were called naturalist and the science was called taxonomy. It was at this time that people were starting to be classified according to their skin color among other things. It was also around this time that the word race had been used to describe people in different locations and according to skin color. During the mid 16th century Jean Boudin began throwing around classifications based solely on color. He used terms such as  “duskish colour, like roasted quinze”, “black”, “chestnut”, and “farish white.” So you know I had to look up the word “farish”.. it means: Somewhat far (as in age or drunkenness) – often used with the word on – “he’s farish on for so early in the evening.The word quinze means fifthteen in French… He better not be talking about what I think he is talking about. Anywho, in the 17th century Bernhard Varen and John Ray classified human populations into more concise categories… according to stature, shape, food habits, and skin color, along with any other distinguishing characteristics. It was also at this time that Ray formulated a biological definition of what makes a species. So loosely speaking a species is a basic unit of a particular organism.. in our case human.. that can procreate and produce fertile offspring, typically through sex. This is a very loose definition of species, so don’t use it to answer that test question on your finals. Another emerging theory was promulgated by Francois Bernier who was the first to classify humans into a “comprehensive” category of races based entirely on color in 1684. He divided the the world into four geographic quarters. The four groups that Bernier used were Europeans, Far Easterners, Negroes (blacks), and Lapps. Lapps are also known as Sami. They live in four countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. So in the 18th century they kicked it up a notch with respect to their classifications. They began to include behavioral or psychological traits in their reported observations, mostly derogatory behaviors with implications that they were distinct behaviors and traits related to a particular race. The behaviors and traits were inherent and therefore immutable. As the science of taxonomy grew so did the speculation of what part did skin color play in human populations. There are eight levels of taxonomy. Species is the final level, although there are sublevels within each classification. For more information on biological taxonomic hierarchy, please click here.

Skeeter: Bill did he say the Ninja is species?
Bill: I think so Skeeter. Why you ask?
Skeeter: Well Bill… I kinda already figured dat… cuz dey always look species at me when I shoot my gun off in front of the store where my gal works… I know wat dey want…
Bill: Shut up.

So at first they started adding behaviors to their classifications.. then they started the BS… remember I said “behaviors and traits.” Okay so for instance regarding traits, they assigned people who had so call strong chins as having stronger characters than a people with a not so defined chins. You can see where this is going… people with red hair have fiery temperaments, people with blue eyes are considered to possess a calm and peaceful personality while people with dark skin possess lower intelligence and a vigorous libido. (Yeah I wanna say it… but I’m not…) So thus began the assignments of a racial hierarchy. Now using science as a way to justify the enslavement of other human beings was unnecessary. Blacks had been enslaved in the new world since the 1500’s. The new science gave them a way to sleep at night living in a society they had built on human bondage. By the early 19th century Johann Friedrich Blumenbach divided our species into five races, Caucasian, Mongolian, Aethiopian (Black), American and Malayan. In his published analysis he wrote, “Individual Africans differ as much, or even more, from other individual Africans as Europeans differ from Europeans.” Africans are not inferior to the rest of mankind ‘concerning healthy faculties of understanding, excellent natural talents and mental capacities”. Blumenbach died in 1840 under mysterious circumstances and is thought to have been put to sleep… I mean put to rest… on the Perdue Chicken Plantation in an unmarked grave… people say it was one in the back… okay I’m just kidding… Blumenbach was German and died in Gottening, Hanover Electorate (Germany). Although he was once viewed as a proponent of scientific racism, he is now considered an early pioneer of multiculturalism. So we talked about taxonomy and how it was the science of classification. In taxonomy blacks were classified as Homo Sapiens as were are all humans. It is difficult to call another human inferior if science has determined that all human beings are the same species. So in the middle part of the 19th century they attempted to moved from a taxonomic concept to a biological concept.

Bill: Will you take that rebel flag off yo head!! Ninja’s are eyeing us!!
Skeeter: I ain’t! That fella Booger said I was a cocozian!! Imma a red blooded, bible carrying, gun toting, hooch drinking, pick up truck driving, cousin marrying, fiddle playing, 6th grade educated American red blooded hillbilly from the Great State Of Mississippi, by way of Lee’s Surrender… where da white womens is safe, good ol boys carry Arkansas Toothpicks and the ninja’s on TV wear bowties and tap dance!!!
Bill: You a caucasian…
Skeeter: Ain’t not….

Lol… An Arkansas Toothpick is southern slang for a Bowie knife… So remember when I said Blumenbach was at first thought to be a racist of the highest order? Well he was considered racist partly because he was one of the first scientist to measure the shapes and sizes of skulls. His work led to the science called craniometry, which is a subset of anthropometry, the study of the measurement of the human body. Interesting, but why are these sciences link to racism? Well it’s not that the sciences are link to racism, but that racist are link to the sciences. For instance anthropometrics, a science link to anthropometry that was invented by Francis Galton and Alphonse Bertillon, measured the shapes and sizes of skulls and related the results to group differences in intelligence or other physical attributes. Bertillon manage to go down in history because he was the first to use the science in a law enforcement application. Before then criminals could only be identified by their photographs or names and before the age of photography, they were identified by artist sketches. The science led to the practice of fingerprinting. Bertillon was also the inventor of the mug shot. Taking pictures of criminals began in the 1840’s, but it wasn’t until 1888 that Bertillon standardardized the process. “Face left… face right… face forward… bend over… oh wait… that comes later… okay i’mma stop… The acceptance of the sciences were built on three principals:

1. Races are objective. They are naturally occuring divisions of humanity.
2. There is scientific proof that biological differences can be measured in terms of activity, interpersonal relationships, culture and the relative material success of cultures.
3. Race can be used to predict and explain individual and group behavior. Race can be categorized by skin color, facial type, cranial profile and size, texture and color of hair. Moreover, races are almost universally considered to reflect group differences in moral character and intelligence.

So for all intensive purposes they really only need the last sentence of one of these principals, number three, which basically means, “cause we said so..” It’s time for us now to get down to the nitty gritty. We have talked about the sciences that contributed to the notion that darker skinned humans are inferior to lighter skinned humans. Now it time to pull the curtain back. Racism had been around since before the time of Plato, but not in the form as it is today. In ancient times they practised a form of racism called eugenics. Eugenics aim to improve the genetic quality of human population through manipulation, historically by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or promoting those judged to be superior. As an example, the Greeks, Spartans and Romans killed any child they determined was not fit to live, which meant that children born with deformities or who were mentally challenged, or had chronic illnesses were immediately killed, usually by drowning them. The foundation of modern eugenics is accredited to a man named Francis Galton, who also gave the pseudo science its name. Modern eugenics places the Aryan race at the pinnacle of humanity, the highest biological achievement a man can obtain. Now a lot of people think that Aryans and Caucasians are the same thing. They are not. All Aryans are Caucasians, but not all Caucasians are Aryans. Aryans are a subgroup of Caucasians. So before we continue let me check to see if my doors are locked, my windows closed and my rat-a tat-tat is ready to rat-a-tat-tat… because what I am about to tell you could mean me waking up to see ropes hanging on every tree in the neighborhood… We have all seen or heard how some white racist refer to one another as ” my Aryan brother,” “they want to segregate from black people and create their own Aryan state”, they got secret handshakes and signs… they got clubs and buy leather shirts that say “Memba of the Aryans Nation!!” They talk about dey da Vikings and Norse gods and shat…. I hate to tell you this… but Aryans come from the Middle East.. that’s right!! The Aryan race is a historical race concept which emerged in the late 19th century to describe people of Indo-European heritage. Let me spell it out.. Indo European people are people that speak the language as their ancestors. Their ancestors came from Iran!! They was “black” Persians boy!! If you are an Aryan.. you a black one…

**********************Reading Break****************************

Skeeter: I thought I told you to put on clapboards.. Well then git some nails… I thought you knowed something!!! You black #$$@!! Help!! Help!! Im sorry!! I’m sorry!!! All of it!!… ALLLLL OF IT!!
Bill: Skeeter!! Skeeter!! Wake up!! You talkin in yo sleep and disturbing us folks that wants to know if ninja’s are sensitive…
Skeeter: I was having the most dawg awful dream Bill!! I dreamt I was having a boy put on some clapboards…..

A little bit of Hill1News trivia.. Tibeats the racist foreman is the inspiration for my Skeeter character.
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Okay I’m still here… that’s a good sign… So I don’t want to spend a lot of time debating the merits of Aryan intelligence, but I do want to pivot to a man named Arthur de Gobineau. He was the brains behind developing the theory of the Aryan master race and figures prominently in our discussion. In 1848 Gobineau wrote a book entitled “An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.” In the book he said that aristocrats were superior to commoners because they were more Aryan based on the fact that there was less interbreeding among them with the so called lesser races. Now I don’t know what dictionary they get their meaning of interbreeding from, but if you marrying your sister.. that’s saying something and dat’s a fact jack. Anywho, Gobineau used what was called the scientific racial theory and racial demography in developing his theory of the Aryan master race and to support his essay. We have talked about racial demography which is another word for racial taxonomy, the study of classifications with respect to human populations. Scientific racial theory is a spinoff of Blumenbach work in that it divided humankind into biologically distinct groups and away from classification which said that all people are homo sapiens. The theory was finally thoroughly debunked with the advent of advances in genetic sciences. But before it was debunked, it was on and poppin. In America Gobineau’s work gained the utmost respect and praise from this country’s top white supremacist and pro-slavery advocates. They translated his book from French to English and it was required reading for Boss Hogg’s all over the south. Ever hear of the name Richard Wagner? He was a noted composer of classical music. He was also one of the biggest racist in Europe and greedily accepted the tenants of the Gobineau’s scientific racial theory. But unlike Gobineau, Wagner’s hatred was for the Jew. In fact the classical music you hear playing on those movies about Jews in concentration camps is probably a work by Wagner. Hitler adored him… as he also adored Gobineau, whose work he had edited and re- published in Germany. Gobineau died in 1882 and Wagner died in 1883. There were other uneducated racist on the circuit in the later part of the 19th century. People like Louis Agassiz, who pimped a theory called the “genre of scientific racism…” really Louie, you couldn’t come up with your own name? Anyway Louie promoted something called  polygenism. Now imma tell you something right now.. you can get yoself #@@! up messing around with polygenism like Louie did if you don’t know what you doing. Polygenism advocates that the races came from separate origins that are endowed with unequal attributes. Agassiz denied that our species originated in single pairs, whether at a single location or at many. So this is where he gets into trouble.. because some people want to know what church he goes to because the bible said God created Adam and Eve. Still he was liked by the slaveholder because polygenism assigned blacks to the bottom rung of humanity. To be fair Agassiz maintained his religious beliefs unlike many other polygenists. His argument to those who opposed his theory was to promote the need for an independence between science and religion. People say the only thing they heard was the crackling of his books when they burned him at the stake… sorry couldn’t help myself.. Agassiz died in 1873.. hopefully in his bed. There are a couple of other lesser known racist who also climbed the biological concept train. Franz Boas who is often called the Father of Anthropology. He encouraged academics to break away from the static science of taxonomy and to support anthropology. History now shows that before Boas, anthropology was the study of race and after Boas anthropology became the study of culture. Then there’s Carlton Coon.. no I’m not joking.. that’s his real name… Coon’s views included something called dinarization which produces a “hybrid” Caucasian. I’m telling you these people were nuts!! In 1962 Coon published “The Origin of Races,” that divided humanity into five races and put forth that each race had ascended the ladder of human evolution at different rates… with the caucasian race of course leading the way. I have save a man named Julian Huxley as our last 20th century racist who tried to use science to elevate human beings based on color. Sir Julian Huxley was from England and proposed a dramatic belief in the difference between blacks and white. Now we about to get into some real vampire shat here… Huxley said the difference between us had to do with our blood. He believed that the color of “blood” – percentage of ‘white’ and ‘black’ blood – that a person had would determine a person’s mental capacity, moral probity, and social behavior. “Blood” also determined how individuals should be treated by society. He was a proponent of racial inequality and segregation. But somehow by mid 1930’s Huxley changed his view. Somebody must have got shot in the azz like George Wallace. Afterward he was considered one of the leading antiracist and committed much of his time and efforts into publicizing the fight against Nazism. He died in 1975.

Skeeter: Bill why ya supposed white folks and Nigras have the same color blood?
Bill: Well Skeeter.. I think that fellow name Ham stole it… Den he gave it to his son Canaan who gave it to the nigras in Africa. Dats why dey cursed him… It took a long time for him to give it to dem all and it started drying out.. so he tried to trick em and give some of em water… but the water made em pee… So dey said ” You can’t trick us no mo!! Blood is thicker than water!!”
Skeeter: Gosh darn…

The great and terrible war which now has ended was made possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races.”- UNESCO 1945.
UNESCO stands for the “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,” and was founded at the end of WWII in 1945. The statement was made after the unbelievable atrocities committed in the name of racism against the Jews. In 1950 they made another statement which shook the world to the core. The statement included both a rejection of a scientific basis for theories of racial hierarchies and a moral condemnation of racism. One of the most startling aspect of the statement to come out of UNESCO was that they wanted to do away with the word “race” altogether and refer to the differences in humans as differences in ethnicity. So the term “ethnic group” was born. In all UNESCO issued five statements concerning the fallacy of scientific racial theory between 1950 and 1954. They were successful in removing the basic tenets of racism based on scientific racial theory superiority from the mainstream. As we all know it did little to stem the tide of racism in America. During the following 20 years some of the most heinous crimes against Black men, women and children occured as the better angels of our nature abandoned us. In 1978 UNESCO put out its final statement concerning post war racism and it included apartheid as a racist system.

“All human beings belong to a single species”

“All peoples of the world possess equal faculties for attaining the highest level in intellectual, technical, social, economic, cultural and political development.”


“The differences between the achievements of the different peoples are entirely attributable to geographical, historical, political, economic, social and cultural factors.”

“Any theory which involves the claim that racial or ethnic groups are inherently superior or inferior, thus implying that some would be entitled to dominate and eliminate others, presumed to be inferior, or which bases value judgements on racial differentiation, has no scientific foundation and is contrary to the moral and ethical principles of humanity.”

Well we have finally come to the end of this article. There are two things I have learned in my fight against racism.. One is that there will always be men like Skeeter… and two is there will always be men like Martin….

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King Jr.


Reprint: Hill1News ©2020

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