Time to focus on our commonalities

I COMPLETELY agree with Councillor Adams (Argus, July 31) that “racism really has no value”, that “today, many of the world leaders are not pure bloods” and that “some envoys of God were of mixed ethnicity”.

But that is as far as I go. No one is a pure blood, not Trump, not Abraham. There is no such thing as pure blood, we all share the same blood types and we all share the same genes. There is no such thing as ethnic groups, councillor, and there are more genetic differences within a so-called ethnic group than there are between such groups.

An American anthropologist told me that I share as many genes with my great-grandfather as I do with the Neanderthals; the same goes for the Royal family, who might have descended from Prophet Muhammad, or according to a guest on a Gareth Cliff show, might have descended from extra-terrestrial lizards.

The main problem with this letter is that he is mixing theology and prejudices with scientific fact and that is never a good idea.

We are descended from Eves who lived in sub-Saharan Africa between 99 000 and 148 000 years ago and from Adams who lived in West Africa between 120 000 and 156 000 years ago, so we are all related, no matter our eye, skin or hair colour, what language we speak or where or how we pray. Our origin is African.

The sooner we start to focus on our commonalities instead of man-invented “ethnic” or racial” categories and nonsense about pure bloods and mixed ethnicity, the better it will be for us. ESTELLE PFEIFFER | Sea Point