The Mathematics of Race (1974)

From the Special 300th issue of The Western Socialist

One of the many myths that persist and plague humanity is the myth of "race" and the intrinsic superiority of one of these classifications of man over the others. Whichever is superior, of course, is chiefly — If not altogether — dependent upon who's doing the categorizing. All of the so-called racial groups are guilty of the error when giving an estimate of racial superiority and inferiority

Yet, it is nonsense. If there ever was a race of man separate and distinct from other races of man it has been long lost in the shuffle of population in all directions through the entire time of man on Earth. Not only is this borne out by an examination of history and the artefacts that give us knowledge of pre-historic times. It is also borne out by an application of “common horse sense.” Let us examine the mathematics of the question. Let's take, for example, an American of any one of the multitude of ethnic backgrounds.

To begin with, our Mr. American — in all probability — traces his ancestry to Europe. Even the self-styled Afro-Americans, whether they like it or not, have had white Europeans in their woodpile. The percentage of Southern, so-called whites, who are closely related to Southern blacks (not to mention Northern blacks, since large numbers of Southern blacks have moved North) has to be high. Laws do not become necessary when the reason for such laws is non-existent. The anti-miscegenation laws of many Southern states exist to curtail miscegenation.

But let us get back to our Mr. Average American. He has two parents and four grandparents. He has eight great-grandparents and sixteen great-great grandparents. Now a generation. we are told, is roughly 33 years, so if we wanted to look at the scene in Europe about 1000 years ago we would calculate about 30 generations backward. Using the mathematical formula most people unconsciously seem to use, our Mr. Average American had more than 1 billion ancestors walking around in the country he is supposed to have originated in, back in 971 A.D. Now, of course, there is something ridiculously wrong about this because the entire population of Europe was considerably less than that number in 971 A.D. And it is plain that the population of the world today is much greater than It was even fifty years ago, let alone a thousand.

So what Is the explanation? Obviously our Mr. Average American must have had ancestors in common with others, and not only in Europe but from pretty much all over the world. For all history and all the evidence we can obtain from prehistoric evidence show conclusively that man from earliest times has been a traveler and an invader. It is well known that entire populations of many of the countries of Europe — as on all of the continents — displaced earlier populations living in the same areas, bringing about the disappearance of the former peoples — no doubt largely by assimilation. One need not get information of this nature from socialists. One need only ask one's teachers and professors, even the ones with racial prejudices.

And throughout the centuries of historic times armies of Asiatics have swept over Europe as have armies of North Africans, while armies of white Christian Europeans were sweeping and miscegenating on other continents. Until today with all of that in the distant background together with all of the fraternizing in the wars and invasions of our own lifetimes, our Mr. Average American is a pretty mixed up character.

Socialists reject racism completely and for no mere sentimental reasons. Socialism rests upon science. Would you know more about socialism? Give us a try. You will be surprised and pleased with what’s in It.