Posted by
reasonmclucus on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 4:57:04 PM
Kevin
Myles the president of the Kansas chapter of the NAACP
recently claimed that a government retreat on enforcement
of civil rights threatened the rights of blacks. Actually the
threat comes from the perpetuation of the racist belief that skin color
separates us into different "races".
The best way to
eliminate discrimination is to recognize that skin color is only
skin deep. Skin color does not automatically make us different in
any other
way.
Black leaders are just as guilty of perpetuating the belief color is
important as
whites. The media actively support this belief by using the
racist term "African-American" to describe those Americans with dark
complexions. The term perpetuates the old
American racist belief of "part black, all black."
The media often refer to
Tiger Woods as
"African American" even though his ancestry is more Asian that
African. His mother was Asian (Thai and Chinese with some
Dutch).
Although his father had some African ancestry, he also had Chinese and
American Indian ancestry.
Even President Barack Obama received less than half of his DNA from his
African father. The "X" chromosome he received from his mother
contains more DNA than the "Y" chromosome he received from his
father. Obama also received mitochondrial DNA from
his mother.
The fact that a person has dark skin doesn't mean that a majority of
his ancestors came from Africa or that he received a majority of his
DNA from African ancestors.
Skin color involves a relative
handful of genes with the most important being
SLC24A5
which produces melanin a molecule that absorbs solar radiation,
particularly potentially harmful UV radiation..
There are two variations
with the variation that produces the amino
acid alanine being associated with a dark
complexion and the variation that produces the amino acid threonine
being associated with light skin.
In general a pigment is black if it absorbs the entire visual light
spectrum. It is white if it reflects the entire visual light
spectrum.
Some of the other genes that affect the function of the
melanin pigment include ASIP, MC1R, TYR, KITL, HERC2 and OCA. The most
important protein responsible for variation in skin color is MC1R.
It would be possible to have a light complexion even though a majority
of ancestors came from Africa. A person can have a dark
complexion even though more than 75% of his ancestors came from Europe.
Even a dark complexioned person with some African ancestors might have
inherited most of his dark skin genes from a non-African including
various
North American peoples.
The version of SLC24A5 associated with dark skin is common
among East Asian and North American peoples as well as Africans.
The version associated with light skin is primarily associated with
those of European ancestry.
The media refer to Barack Obama as the first African ancestry
president, but as many as six
other presidents may have had African ancestors. Like many other
white Americans, they may or may not have known about African
ancestors. My previous post looks at this issue and the
general issue of why geneological records may not reflect one's
biological ancestors.
After the broadcast of the "Roots"
miniseries, many Americans
decided to research their ancestry. Many whites were
surprised to find ancestors who had served in the military in the 19th
Century who had the letter "C" after their names meaning "colored".
The Spanish were the first to bring Africans to North American with the
establishment of their Georgia
settlement in 1526.
For the English settlements, the first African
"servants" arrived in Jamestown
in 1619 only 14 years after the founding of the settlement. African and
poor white
indentured servants
initially worked together in the fields. This practice
would have led to sex across the color line.
Some Africans
became free and had their own farms. Antonio the
Negr0
arrived in Virginia in 1621. He later became free,
changed his name to Anthony Johnson and eventually had his own farm
with indentured servants. The idea of servants being slaves
developed gradually with the cost of replacing servants being a factor
in the decision to make the Africans permanent slaves.
White servitude was abandoned in part because it was
too
easy for escaped white indentured servants to blend in on
the
frontier. Lighter skinned descendent's of Africans would
have been able to do the same thing long before the American
Revolution. Those on the frontier spent much of their
time outside and would have had sun darkened skin. The small
frontier populations would have led to marrying whomever
was available without much concern about color.
Laws eventually prohibited marriage across the color line, but owners
and overseers had sex with slaves throughout the
period of slavery. During slavery a baby's status as slave
or free usually depended upon the status of the mother because at the
time they had no way to reliably determine who the father was.
Some plantation owners might have claimed light skinned
children born to them by slaves as the children of their wives.
Southern states allowed white men to rape
black women without fear of punishment until the mid-20th Century.
Children of dark skinned parents who decided to leave home an pass for
white would have eventually married those who considered themselves
white.
We will never eliminate racism in the United States as
long as
politicians and media continue to claim that skin color defines a
person's "race". The term "African-American" perpetuates the old
American racist belief of "part black, all black."
The ancestors of some black Americans arrived in Virginia nearly 400
years ago and in Georgia nearly 500 years ago If white Americans
whose families have lived here for only a century or so can be
considered
"regular Americans" ( to borrow
Archie Bunker's term)
then why must dark skinned Americans whose families may
have lived here for four or five centuries bear a label
implying they
belong somewhere else.
Only about 500,000
Africans
were imported into North America during the three centuries of the
slave trade. Thus, the vast majority of the 4.5 million blacks
living in the U.S. in
1860
were born here. Those Americans whose ancestors were slaves are
regular Americans, not Africans.
The Census Bureau wants us to check our "race" on census forms.
Even if Europeans and Africans are separate "races", we Americans
are all mixed together and are not biologically divided into separate
races according to the color of our skins.
We need to recognize the wisdom of the Lakota phrase
Aho
Mitakuye Oyasin (We Are All Related) regardless of the color
of our skin.