Darwin and Race

Growing up in today’s society we are all very aware of the term race and all the controversy surrounding this. Racism has been around for a very long time. Science has been somewhat intertwined with justifying racism, especially after the work Darwin published in 1859, where he explains his theory of evolution.

Although Darwin’s intentions were not to help racial justification of actions, scientists like Herbert Spencer who coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ from Darwin’s publication, “Reasoned biological evolution could be equally applicable to human society.” (Rutledge 1). Darwin’s piece along with some “racist” white people only influenced the idea that the white race was the superior race and “colored inferiority” allowed them to treat others so badly and unfairly.

Many who took Darwin’s theories in the biological sense soon discovered that the humans all have the same common ancestor which originates in Northern Africa. Darwin states in his famous text that natural selection is, “if it (trait) be any degree profitable to an individual species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature… will generally be inherited by its offspring” (Appleman 108). It is believed that the population in Africa was growing, so the humans migrated to new places and new environments. Due to the change in radiation from the sun, to better protect themselves, those who moved closer to the equator had darker skin tones to better protect them with more pigments. Those who migrated farther away got less color because they didn’t need as much protection from the sun.

The video above is a more in depth explanation of where humans came from, specifically in the terms of evolution. It begins with where we all branched from and how we have become so spread out.

After learning about this piece of information, it makes me wonder what a world without racism would be like. So many things would change. Racism is everywhere in our lives. It’s in TV such as stereotypical uneducated black man, or the mob boss who is Italian, or the ditzy girl. We also touched on race in Aesthetic Expressions where we watched a documentary on how black people were portrayed on TV during the past 50 years. After knowing what I know now, it’s ironic that in a way white people are making fun of themselves because we are all technically coming from the same place, we all just simply adapted differently to our different environments.

Unfortunately in the society we live in there are many things that are stopping us a whole to accept this knowledge and change. For one, religion and religious people believe that God created humans and will not accept the ideas of scientists especially anything Darwin started. Secondly race is so embedded into our everyday lives that it will be very hard to stop stereotyping, etc people of different skin tones. I believe if everyone knew that we are all from the same ancestors, and it’s because of Natural Selection that we are all different people might act differently however that is a revelation that not everyone will grasp.

Works Cited:

Appleman, Philip, ed. Darwin. 3rd ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

Charles Darwin Evolution 1 of 6. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiFXVzlzfI4&feature=related.

Dennis, Rutledge M. “Social Darwinism, Scientific Racism, and the Metaphysics of Race.”
Journal of Negro Education. Summer 1995. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3626/is_199507/ai_n8730395