Our new president-elect, talking about the dog he is planning to get for his children, said it might be a mutt like him. He was referring, of course, to his being of both black and white heritage.
Interesting thing about skin color. Everyone calls Mr. Obama African-American, but that’s because his skin is dark. I am no genetic expert, but could he not have as easily been born with a light skin, coming from a white mother? Then what would we call him?
For those attracted to the notion of racial purity, you’re going to have a long, hard search for it. We categorize people racially based on what we can see. But what about those factors we can’t see? I suspect that if we all had our DNA analyzed, we’d be pretty shocked at whatever went in to producing us. So there is really little basis for prejudice, at least according to standards like skin color.
Not that I’m in favor of analyzing everyone’s DNA right now. You can see where that road heads, too. Remember the movie “Gattaca,” in which only those with no genetic defects got to be astronauts? The insurance companies would have a field day with such information.
But when you realize how little separates us, it’s just too hard to maintain old attitudes that are based on, well, nothing, really. So as one great American said not long ago, “Can’t we all just get along?” In the modern world, we’re going to find that we have to in order to survive. Barack Obama’s election is one big step toward getting us used to the idea.
There, now I’ve said it.
No comments:
Post a Comment