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''' '' RACE SCIENCE
RAMP '' ''' : !WOW!
THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY - for every subject in the world - as a policy, has zero tolerance for racism in any abstraction, form and manifestation. The Students of the entire world, would be well advised to keep that as an absolute, in their mind.
The World Students Society, under the sacred trusteeship of the Heroic Global Founder Framers - is the exclusive and eternal ownership of every single student in the world.
'' WHO ARE WE? '' British journalist Angela Saini explores uncomfortable truths such as these in her book ''Superior : The Return of Race Science''.
She also peppers the book with her own experiences of growing up in London as a second generation Briton of Indian origin, and whether her own quest for identity has anything in common with the scientists who try to answer questions 'Who are we?'' by turning to genetics.
THE PICTURE WAS UNFORGETTABLE : a group of scantily clad Aboriginal Australians applying face paint to a child as part of an initiation ritual. I vividly remember the caption : 'Some people have survived the modern era living a Stone Age Lifestyle'.
The insinuation was, of course, that the process of civilization moves linearly, with hunter gatherer societies trailing far behind the industrialised ones, with all the machines, weapons and comforts that the latter have.
What the writers of the book failed to see is how absurd it is to rank an industrial society higher than a traditional one, since the lens from which we are viewing both belongs to the industrialised society.
As 'modern' human beings, we inadvertently consider ourselves [or those more 'advanced' than us] the yardstick of civilisation, so naturally, 'primitive' cultures such as the Aborigines, - the Amazon jungle tribes - or, the Kalasha of Chitral in Pakistan - will not fit our expectations.
In reality, though, traditional societies are probably harder, having weathered natural disasters, wars and pandemics and, unlike us, being owners of rich histories, dating back thousands of years. Or perhaps we are simply hesitant to accept that indigenous people are as civilised as us, because that would challenge the legitimacy of our presence on their land.
The book's premise is compelling enough : the notion of race is purely a social construct, with zero biological rationale. And yet scientific racism - persists today, despite the horrors of 20th century Nazism, and the greater scientific and social awareness that we have now.
Tracing the history of race science, Sanini exposes the shadowy world of contemporary pseudoscientific journals, and finds that migration policy and population control motivate many of the racist lobbies that bankroll them.
She ends on an impassioned plea that we need to take the threat of scientific racism seriously, because it is responsible for the rise of right-wing nationalism and we witness around the world, be it in the United Kingdom - the United States or India.
Saini argues that there is more genetic diversity within populations than across ethnic [or ''racial''] divides. Being the same 'race' doesn't necessarily mean she is genetically more similar to the Indian woman in her building than her white neighbour.
So why are scientists hell-bent on proving somehow that people are different? Why are they so eager to find a biological basis for race?
To answer the question, Saini goes back to the invention of race as a category, which she says helped those at the top of the social and political order in the 1700s to justify their control of global resources.
The argument goes that, if European colonisers could claim that ''we are different'' from conquered people, then the next step would logically be ''we are inherently better'', which would justify their hegemonic position in our society.
Most Western academics laud the Age of Enlightenment - the 17th century triumph of science over superstition, the first instance when humans were seen to be elevated above animals. But Saini says that even the Enlightenment occurred within the confines of European thought.
So, when European philosophers set the parameters for what was considered a modern human being, they built it around their own experiences and what they happened to value culturally at that time.
Eurocentrism meant that people from other civilizations were not seen as equally human. As a consequence, she says, philosophers and scientists of the 18th century were incredibly racist - George Hegel, Immanuel and Voltaire being examples.
But this Eurocentric view of the evolution of mankind also had wider implications where Europeans fought with non-Europeans civilisations.
Race, rather than history, could then be the explanation for not only the natives' failure on the battlefield, but the failures of all non-white races to live up the ideal that European themselves had defined.
The Sadness and Serving of this supremely important publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks author Saif Asif Khan, an economist, and a teacher of social sciences.
With respectful dedication to all Mankind, Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' Masai - Meteor '''
Good Night and God Bless
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