Science raises its voice against ignorant racism
Exhibition aims to use education about human origins to destroy myths around superficial physical differences
Many people still cling to the divisive belief that genetic differences in people justify racism, despite 200,000 years of scientific evidence that proves them wrong. The belief that skin colour and facial features indicate some hierarchy of intelligence, moral fibre, degree of civility or all-round better-quality human is pure bunkum, and scientists in SA are out to debunk it. Prof Robert Blumenschine, chief scientist at the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (Past), says physical differences among humans evolved purely as an adaptation to environments and are caused by a tiny fraction of genes. Genetically speaking, the molecular sequences comprising the genomes of any two people are 99.9% alike. "It’s only within the last 1% of the 6-million to 7-million year journey of humankind that racial differences between Africans, Europeans, Asians and people from other regions began to emerge," Blumenschine says. "Typically, the way racism and xenophobia are combated is through political r...
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