Racial Diversity

There are different kinds of human variation. Some differences are biological or genetic, others are cultural or environmental. There are also different levels of human variation. Some differences are at the individual level, others are at the population or racial level. The first distinguished us as separate individuals, the second distinguish a population of individuals as a separate race. In the system of biological classification called taxonomy a race is a subdivision or branch of a species, and a species in turn is a subdivision or branch of a genus. All populations which are capable of interbreeding with each other and producing fertile offspring are considered to be members of the same species, regardless how great their differences or how distinct their relationship. (Edward O. Wilson, _The Diversity of Life_ (Harvard University Press, 1992), p.38). A race is a population that can be distinguished as a distinct subgroup within a species by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. It possesses a unique and distinct ensemble of genes, and is identified by the traits (both mental and physical) produced by this genetic ensemble. Members of the same race share distinguishing genetic characteristics because they share a common genetic ancestry and a consequently similar genetic ensemble. They are capable not only of producing offspring but of producing offspring who also share and continue their racially unique genetic ensemble and its distinctive traits and characteristics. Among non-human animal populations the degree of genetic differences between many species is far less than the degree of genetic difference between human races, and many of these species are biologically capable of interbreeding, but as they do not interbreed under natural conditions -- instinctively discriminating in selecting mates of their own kind -- they are classified as separate species. There is variation among individuals in the degree of racial discrimination in selecting a mate. Only a minority of INDIVIDUALS in any given generation interbreed with other races under conditions of extensive contact. Over the course of generations all POPULATIONS end up mixed as the cumulative effect of a minority in each generation adds up to a majority -- and eventually a total population -- over a space of generations.) Traditionally, species and races have been identified by their morphological (external physical) traits and characteristics, and this is still the primary determinant, generally taking priority over others in the even of disagreement. Other determinants of racial identity -- such as biochemical and molecular genetic analysis -- are usually consistent with the morphological identification when one allows for the extent of individual variation one can expect to find for these traits within a race. The human genome or genetic code consists of about 100,000 genes, each consisting of many thousands of "genetic letters," or nucleotide pairs of DNA (DioxyriboNucleicAcid), numbering three billion base pairs in total. The interaction of these genes in producing genetic traits is often complex. At least five different genes work together to determine skin color, and as many as 100 work together to determine skin texture.) All the human races share at least 99.5% of their three billion genetic letters in common, their genetic differences being limited to .5%, a proportion which represent about FIFTEEN MILLION genetic differences or mutations. (Humans also share 98.4% of their DNA in common with Chimpanzees) This rich racial diversity of modern humanity owes its existence to geographic separation and the reproductive isolation this separation has preserved. In racial classification there is often a tendency to group a wide range of diverse racial types together into one race, attempting to contain all human racial variation within a few very broadly defined racial categories. As a rule, what these broad racial categories gain in simplicity they lose in accuracy. They can be regarded as useful only if they are recognized as a first level subdivision of species, or subspecies. Based on the nuclear DNA studies of Luigi Luca CarvalliSforza and his colleagues we can define 7 further branches of racial grouping or divisions. The CONGOID subspecies of subSaharan Africa; CAUCASOID of Europe, Asia west of the Himalayas and Africa north of the Sahara; the NORTHEAST ASIAN of Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan; the AMERINDIAN, which branches from the Northeast Asians and migrated to the Americas; the SOUTHEAST ASIAN of Indochina, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, and the Philippines; the PACIFIC ISLANDERS of Polynesia; and the AUSTRALOID of Australia, Melanesia and New Guinea. A branch of humanity can be regarded as a race only when its different genetic elements are sufficiently homogenous -- or genetically compatible -- that they can freely intermix without negating or diminishing their unique genetic ensemble and racial traits. For example, the Caucasoid group includes such distinctly different and separate peoples as those of Sweden, Italy, Armenia, Egypt, Iran and India) it is clear that these groupings are too broad to be accurately defined as races, but should properly be regarded as subspecies -- or groupings of more or less related, but still distinctly separate, races within a species. Reproductive isolation, provided by geographic separation, made human racial diversity possible. Reproductive isolation assures that those individuals who do reproduce will reproduce their own racial type, as it effectively limits their choice of partners to their own racial type. This condition is required for the preservation of racial diversity. Even without considering the effects of interbreeding, geographic separation is required for the continued existence of all the different races in the long term. If different races occupied the same territory the resulting competition between the races in the multiracial environment would have different effects on the races involved. Some races might thrive in the multiracial environment while others would suffer a decline in population, not only in the relative terms of population share but also in absolute terms. (Note: GauseÕs law of Exclusion states that multiple animal species with the same requirements cannot coexist for any length of time in the same habitat. All but one will eventually become extinct. This law can also be applied to human races occupying the same territory, where the more successful race (usually measured by rate of population growth) eventually assimilates or replaces its competitors.) Thus the racial changes that occur in a multiracial environment tend toward a decrease in overall human racial diversity. It is therefore misleading to identify a multiracial environment or society with racial diversity, as the long term effects of such a multiracial condition are actually to reduce and negate diversity. The ideology (or system of beliefs and values) that favors a multiracial social condition, or multiracialism, often describes this condition as "racial diversity." It is a type of racial diversity, but a type which consists of mixing together in the same territory diverse races which previously were geographically separated, and whose diversity -- and existence -- was preserved by separation. This type of racial diversity that violates the conditions (reproductive isolation) required for continued preservation, creates the conditions (extensive contact) that promote interbreeding and the consequent destruction of racial diversity. It is really a form of social diversity or racial diversity in a social sense. But it in the biological or genetic sense it is anti-diversity, as its effects are destructive of the racial diversity. The two types of racial diversity (social & biological) should not be confused, as they are in fact incompatible opposites. In the long term one cannot have both, as the social type is destructive of the biological type, nor can one be for both, as the promotion of biological racial diversity requires opposition to multiracial societies. The racial interbreeding that is an unavoidable consequence of a multiracial society does add a new element to social racial diversity in the form of the racially-mixed or hybrid offspring of different parent racial stocks. But this hybrid element does not add to biological racial diversity. It takes existing genetic characteristics from the different parent racial stocks and either mixes them into a new combination, blends them together into an intermediate form or, if they are recessive, diminishes or negates their occurrence. These hybridized recombinations of racial- genetic traits actually reduce, and are destructive of, biological racial diversity to the extent that they replace or deplete the parent racial stocks. The two opposing forces in the existence of races are the forces of life and death, or creation and destruction. While there is only one creation of a race, there are many ways by which a race can die, many forces of racial destruction. The racial destructive force of intermixture undoes, destroys or decreates the diversity of creation by blending different races together in a multiracial social condition descriptively and accurately referred to as a "melting pot." The racially unique and distinct ensembles of genes are dissolved in the common blend and all distinctive traits and differences are destroyed and lost in a racial melt-down. The migration of vast numbers of people around the world, made possible by modern advances in transportation, has facilitated the development of multiracial societies and the transformation of many previously monoracial countries into multiracial ones. As in many other areas of technology, transportation technology has advanced much more rapidly than our understanding of its effects, or the development of philosophical and moral concepts to deal with those effects and avoid those that are harmful. The implications of this vast bringing together of different races that had been preserved under conditions of geographic separation -- replacing reproductive isolation with its antithetical opposite, extensive contact -- are profound. Yet these implications have received little attention or consideration. If geographic separation of the races is replaced by multiracial social conditions it can be expected that racial diversity will be replaced by racial intermixture and result in a diminishment and loss in racial diversity. If those races which are most vulnerable to the effects of racial intermixture -- because of recessiveness of their genetic characteristics or the sensitivity of their reproductive behavior -- are subjected to multiracial conditions on a sufficient scale it is likely that they will become extinct, and their distinctive traits will be lost. They will exist only in submersion with the traits of other races, submerged in the multiracial blend or mixture of the "melting pot." The preservation of racial diversity requires the preservation of the conditions of geographic separation that made and makes diversity possible. Under the impetus of two factors, modern transportation systems and a dominant destructive ideology, the age-old conditions of geographic separation are being destroyed. The dominant ideology that promotes multiracialization of previously monoracial societies perceives the continued existence of different races as a matter of little or now value, importance or concern, or even with outright hostility as something to oppose. The Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum said, "In the end, we will conserve only what we love." If the world is to be made safe for racial diversity -- or safe AGAIN for racial diversity - its preservation will first have to be regarded as a matter of great value, importance and concern. As we begin to have a sense of reverence for life in general, we should develop a reverence for the diversity of life, and particularly the diversity of human life. As we have learned to regard that which promotes life as good, and that which destroys life as evil, so we should learn to regard that which promotes the diversity of life as good, and that which destroys that diversity as evil. An effective racial conservation movement would depend upon a sense of appreciation and reverence for that which it sought to conserve. Only under the protection of the ethical concept of rights -- in this case racial rights -- can racial diversity, the existence of different races, be protected and preserved in an age when this former protector, geographic distance, is no longer effective in preserving the condition of geographic separation racial diversity requires for its continued existence. An ethical philosophy or racial preservation is needed to provide the diverse races with the protected habitats - the geographic separation which is the only effective barrier to interbreeding - that the fallen barriers can no longer provide.