HUMANITY MUST SEE EACH OTHER AS ONE

THE term “race” was introduced in the English language less than 500 years ago. By claiming that there were many “races,” those in power benefited. This idea of different races gradually became a social reality, resulting in privileges for some and inequitable disadvantages for others – and in what we now call racism, seen as the most challenging social issue of our time.

The social construct of race was created to separate us, resulting in humanity becoming splintered into many groups and communities, though we had always been nomads, wanderers, and migrants on this Earth. The more we multiplied and allowed greed, envy, and false senses of superiority to dominate our thinking, the more we began to see our differences of color as differences in kind.

It was not biology but rather the local environmental and geographic conditions that caused differences in skin tone that we now identify as different races.

DNA has changed how we should see ourselves in relation to each other, and what we think of as home. Now we can actually see that the Earth is our common homeland, and we are all global villagers. Ultimately, we should realise that there is really only one human race, since we are among the most genetically similar of all species.

The external differences we observe daily are literally only skin deep.

As we integrate this new understanding of DNA and common code in our genes, our view should also shift. The idea that there are many human “races” is an illusion – we are all members of one human family.

However, race as a social construct, and by extension racism itself, is much more deeply rooted in our societal framework than our current understanding of DNA and the oneness of humanity.

Just knowing that we are one human family is simply not enough. These truths must seep into our schools, our laws, our food systems, and our art – just as racism has. Race is also a social fact, with very real social consequences that impact and limit every other aspect of life. Racial differences can have serious consequences, including limited educational and economic opportunities, health access, and life choices. On a very practical level, the social reality of racism prevents us from achieving universal human rights. Deep and slow-healing wounds remain from repressive subtle and overt forms of superiority that plague every corner of society.

We are all one people, one nation, one species, one kind. The common interest is complete equality. Times have changed, and the needs of the world have changed. Justice and equal dealing towards all peoples on the face of the earth are the means whereby progress is effected.

To me, unity in diversity, as it relates to the human family, means recognising that because there are many cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities that will always make up the human race, we can still affirm, appreciate, and celebrate these differences; and that because race is a social construction with the very real social consequence of racism, we – all people – need to address, discuss, and find ways to transform racism into unity in diversity.

Diversity is a fact of life. Unity in diversity honours all the natural and unique forms of diversity that exist within the human family; and essential to the wellbeing of humanity as it is in the realm of the human gene pool.

Consider the flowers of a garden: though different in kind, colour, form and shape, yet, it is the diversity that adds to the overall beauty of the garden.

Love and gravity are two forces that are always attractive. Prejudice, on the other hand, manifests love’s opposite force. Love is the safeguard for human diversity.