Want to know why we can’t get over racism? Because people are stupid. I do my best not to point and laugh at people being obnoxiously stupid, but sometimes, I can’t help myself. I just have to point, laugh … and then weep for humanity.

Yesterday, I ran across this question at one of my usual haunts:

Does any one know where the original homeland of white people was located?

This is going to be long, I can already tell. Therefore, to avoid having ten tons of text on my front page, behind the cut it goes.

OK, not an entirely stupid question, for someone who never went to high school and doesn’t read, watch, or listen to anything educational (or a small child or really old person). It’s a valid question to ask, if one doesn’t know the answer, and there is an answer.

Genetically speaking, the answer is white people come from Africa. All humans come from Africa. Humans who migrated out of Africa and into colder, less UV abundant climates, adapted to the lower levels of UV radiation (necessary for the body’s production of vitamin D, which leads to better calcium absorption) to have lighter skin tones.

Ethnically speaking, it’s a completely stupid and invalid question, as “white” people (as well as brown people, black people, and every other color of people) aren’t a monolithic group sharing one ethnic heritage and culture. I’m as “white” as the lady across the street, but my family tree leads to the British Islands and Austria, while hers takes a path to South America. Which of those two are where “white” people come from? Neither … and both. She and I share a common skin tone, eye color, and hair color, but culturally and ethnically, we are literally a world apart.

Of course, the answer that we all come from Africa and that lighter skin tones were caused by genetic changes to adapt to different climates never seems to sit well with some groups of people (racists and the under-educated — these groups not being mutually exclusive in any way). Anyone asking the above question on an open forum is sure to be presented with all manner of views and opinions, both educated and ridiculous. I told myself yesterday I would not go back to that question to see how others had answered it, knowing full well there would be things said that made me want to pull my hair out. Someone had already answered the question appropriately enough, and I have better things to do that get aggravated by idiots and spending any time providing data and facts to people either too ignorant or pig-headed to let anything other than their own opinions enter their thought stream.

Naturally, I couldn’t resist going back. I never can. So here’s a collection of things said in the conversation that I would be replying to if I a) felt it would do any good and b) didn’t mind wasting my energy arguing with brick walls. I will likely not be able to resist ranting about some of these, so I’ll put my ranting in footnotes.

And there is only one race. The Human race.

Yes there is, yet within that human race some subspecies to be classified in various groups, strictly biologically speaking.^†

I read that about Vitamin D synthesis and the inability of dark skinned people to get sufficient amounts of Vitamin D in America, so it is obvious that Black People did not evolve in North America.

Unless there was a shift in the earths axis in the not to distant past which would have made North America a lot warmer and hotter than it is today.^††

“The gene responsible for fair skin first appeared in northwestern Europe in the Baltic Sea area. White skin is a mutation.”… that’s a good one… gene mutation is another leg or third eyeball, not skin color !!!… it’s all about melanin and places on earth where the inhabitants lived, and inter-racial breeding and diet…^†††

I’m not sure all “white people” as you define it are descended from the same groups. The particular characteristics – sharper noses, less pigment in the skin, and greater intelligence – are all related to colder climates with cloud cover and less wind.^††††

However one has to separate humanity as a whole, with multiple links in evolutionary chain, and the our species – the HomoSapience, who appeared about 40 thousand years ago in Europe. Since it is all agreed that we all Homo (as in humanoid, not homosexual) and some of us are more or less Sapience – should we really count Africa as the origin?^{†††††}

Amazing, huh? That we are white and originated in Africa. But I remember this… we came from the land of Jesus, the Bible … I think this is way cool, if you ask me! We didn’t come from monkeys .. we came from people!^{††††††}

That’s about enough of that^{†††††††}. I just had to get it off my chest, and there was no way I actually wanted to get into the conversation. It would only lead to me shuffling pages in books and looking up citations online and spending far too many hours, if not days, trying to provide facts for people who won’t pay any attention to them. There are some people that just can’t be argued with or educated, because they are willfully ignorant. I have better things to do, like spray soapy water on plants to kill aphids … which is what I am going to go do right this minute.

If anyone is actually interested in reading the thread in its entirety, here you go. I warn you though, the ignorance, stupidity, and outright ridiculousness you will encounter will likely make your head explode. I’m not going back, and I don’t suggest anyone wade into it unless they really just can’t help themselves.

1. † OMG, no. No, there are no “subspecies” of humans. Homo Sapiens Sapiens is the only surviving subspecies of human beings, the others having either been breed out of existence or in some other way gone extinct forever ago. There bones now rest in museums, and that’s as close as we get to having different “species” of humans today. Races are not species and never have been. Every last one of us, no matter where we live or what we look like is a member of the very same species of human … i.e. Homo Sapiens Sapiens. [↩]
2. †† This is from the person who posted the original question. Well, woohoo to them for having read something that might have been educational at some point in their lives, but who but the most ignorant amongst us would ever think that black people evolved in North America. I’ve got news for this person: no one actually evolved in North America. Even the native Americans in North and South America migrated there some many ages ago as humans spread out across the planet … from freaking Africa. [↩]
3. ††† This is what I mean by stupid. I can’t even rant about this one. If a person can successfully list things that lead to variation and mutation in genetic markers, such as environment, diet, and interbreeding, and still believe that skin color isn’t determined by a genetic marker, what can really be said? All “colors” on the human body are determined by variations in genetics. Eye color, hair color, skin color … as well as extra arms and legs. Jeez. [↩]
4. †††† Did this person just state that colder climates with cloud cover and less wind relates in some way not only to lighter skin tones but also intelligence?! Did this person just say that people with lighter skin tones are more intelligent?!?! Yes, they did. This was snipped from a very long comment expounding on this ridiculous notion. The person doesn’t seem to be an actual racist either … just incredibly freaking stupid. [↩]
5. ††††† It’s SAPIENS, dammit! And if one wants to be totally accurate, it’s Homo SAPIENS SAPIENS! And once again, someone who thinks there are still other species of humans still in existence. Bzzzzt. Wrong. Every human alive right now is the exact same creature as every other human alive right now. No one is “more or less” Homo Sapiens SAPIENS. Furthermore, modern humans appeared much longer ago than 40,000 years ago. More like 200,000 years ago … in Africa. [↩]
6. †††††† Here that thumping sound? That’s me banging my head against my desk. Yes, Virginia, you come from humans. And where did these humans come from? Primates. We still are primates. Very smart and capable primates, but monkeys nonetheless. [↩]
7. ††††††† There was one person commenting who seemed, at first glance, to know what she was talking about. I haven’t posted any of the things she said, because it would take me writing a book to refute her seemingly educated mumbo-jumbo. She’s really good at finding studies and scientific papers, but she’s not so great at reading them and understanding them. Made a lot of sense at first, but then I saw flaws in the logic … followed by her mentioning the different species of humans (which no longer exist — we are a single god damned species now). It’s unfortunate for the other people who don’t know better who are buying into her supposed extensive knowledge of the subject, but I gave up trying to educate the world a few years ago. Let them wallow is ignorance, so long as they stay the hell away from me and my life. [↩]