Currently active religious and ethical conflicts:

About Racism: It continues today,
particularly in the U.S., but may
be approaching its end. NYC school
racial segregation. Killing of George
Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis
triggered massive demonstrations
mainly across U.S.

Public opinion polls on Black Lives Matter.

"Racism" is generally defined as the personal belief that individuals of one race are superior to those of another race. Unsurprisingly, most racists appear to believe that the race that they belong to is the race whose members are superior to all others.

In the U.S., a definition of the current racial and ethnic categories was written by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 1997. ₁ They recognize the existence of five racial categories:

• American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains their tribal affiliation or community attachment.

• Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

• Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro" can be used in addition to "Black or African American".

• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

• White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

The Federal Office also defines two ethnic categories:

• Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
  
  
• Not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish Origin.

The term "Negro" (plural Negroes) was widely used in the U.S. until the civil rights era of the 1950s. However, its use was dropped by the Census Bureau in 2013. ₂it is now "regarded as an archaic term which is often seen as offensive." ₃ The Obama administration proposed to eliminate "Negro" from all government forms. However, the Trump administration decided in late 2017 to delayed implementing that decision. ₂

Similar definitions of "race" and "ethnic categories are found in other countries.

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The significance of race:

Most adults around the world identify themselves as affiliated with a Christian or Muslim faith group. Many of them follow passages in Bible or Qur'an that imply that race is of little significance because every human being is a descendant of Adam and Eve. They were the original two humans that these books state were created by God. Thus, we are all of one race -- the human race.

The Bible states in Genesis 1:27 & 28:

Verse 27: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; [one] male and [one] female created he them."

Verse 28: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it... " (King James Version) ₃

If the original human couple was created in "the image of God," then it would seem that all of Eve and Adam's descendent's are also in "the image of God," and of equal value.

Muslim believers believe that the Qur'an was written by Allah (God). It refers to mankind as the "Tribe of Adam" in Verse 4:1:

" O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women ..." ₄

Most of those who believe in the Naturalistic Evolution of the Earth's species from an original single-celled life form billions of years ago also agree that race is of little significance because all humans on Earth who have ever lived are of African origin and share distant one male and one female ancestors who lived in that continent.

Research studies have found that:

• Mitochondrial Eve is the woman who was the matrilineal most recent common ancestor of all humans -- that is, everyone's great-great-great-great ..... grandmother. She lived many thousands of generations in the past, sometime between 152,000 to 235,000 years ago and lived in East Africa. ₅
  
  
• Y-chromosomal Adam was the patrilineal most recent common ancestor of all humans - everyone's great-great-great-great ..... grandfather. He lived more recently, about 142,000 years ago, and was born in Western Africa. ₆
  
  
• They lived in different places about 10,000 years or more apart in time, and thus could never have actually met. Even if they had been born in the same village at the same time, neither would have realized that they would become the ancestors of the entire human race.

Research has also determined that:

• Skin color, which is the indicator that many people use to assign a person's race, is primarily determined by the amount of melanin in the skin. This, in turn, is determined by a group of genes in their DNA. The most important gene appears to be one called SLC24A5. ₇
  
  
• Some racists, and others, believe that some persons -- typically those from the individual racist's own race -- are inherently superior to those of other races. For example, they believe that newborns of different races, on average, will have average different potential IQs as adults. They point to studies that indicate that the average IQ among adults of different races differ.
  
  This belief has been challenged in an review of a paper published in the Journal of Intelligence on 2016-DEC-23. It states:

  "Some academic publications infer from studies of trans-racial adoptees’ IQs that East Asian adoptees raised in the West by Whites have higher IQs than Western Whites, and that White adoptees raised by Whites have higher IQs than Black adoptees raised by Whites. That is that newborns of some races will have higher IQs as adults than those of other races."

  The authors of the paper studied the IQ differences among transracial adoptees and suggested that truth lies in:

  "... a nil hypothesis: East Asian, White, and Black adoptees raised in the same environment would have similar IQs, hinting at a minimal role for genes in racial IQ differences." ₈

If this finding is correct, then the average IQ differences among Asian, Black, and White adults are largely or entirely determined by the environment in which they are raised, and not determined by their perceived race.

School segregation by race in New York City (NYC):

Their school system appears to be the most racially segregated school system in the U.S. This is largely because of the distribution of persons of different races in different areas of NYC>

Medina Toure, writing for Observer.com, notes that the cities Department of Education which operates the NYC public school system released its first citywide school diversity plan. She wrote:

"Since the release of the plan, Manhattan’s District 1—the Lower East Side and East Village—implemented the city’s first district-wide school diversity plan, according to the DOE. And Manhattan’s District 3 and Brooklyn’s District 15 are working on district-wide plans.

The department told Observer the plan goes hand in hand with the city’s Equity in Excellence for All agenda, referring to the mayor’s universal prekindergarten initiative and “3K for All,” which is free, fully-day early childhood education for all 3-year-old children. The department also referred to Universal Literacy, which has the goal of making sure every student is reading on grade level by the end of second grade; Algebra for All, which seeks to improve elementary and middle school math instruction; and College Access for All." ₉

Future trends in racism:

Just as:

• Misogyny (bias against women), homophobia (bias against persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation), and transphobia (bias against persons whose gender identity conflicts with their birth-identified gender) are all fading in intensity and frequency, largely because of the growing realization that all are genetically or epigenetically based, and thus beyond an individual's control, and
  
  
• Racism (bias against persons of different races) is expected to continue to decrease in the future because of the expected growing realization across the U.S. that:
  • race is genetically based, and thus beyond an individual's control, and that
    
    
  • the average IQ of persons of each race is largely determined by their upbringing which is also beyond an individual's control,

The future probably holds a gradual fading of all of the major bases for discrimination and a gradual shift towards a more tolerant society.

Unfortunately, if racism follows the pattern of past prejudice based on sexual orientation, then it might take a few generations for these findings to be generally accepted by the U.S. population generally. Then racism will fade to insignificance.

2020-MAY-25: Demonstrations in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis:

Derek Chauvin and George Floyd

On the evening of 2020-May-25, group of four officers were involved in the death of George Floyd -- a 46 year-old black man in Minneapolis, MN. ₁₀ The officers were Derek Michael Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane, and Tou Thao.

Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase cigarettes. He was handcuffed, and was lying face down on the street beside a police car. One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, 44, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd begged for his life, saying repeatedly that: "I can't breathe." Onlookers pleaded for Floyd's release, but were ignored. During the final three minutes, Floyd did not move or speak and had no pulse.

Chauvin's knee remained in place even as the medical personnel were trying to save him. Multiple bystanders video taped the altercation.

He was transported to the emergency room at the Hennepin County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 9:25 PM.

The preliminary results of an autopsy by the Hennepin County medical examiner found that Floyd had previously been suffering from coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. It found no evidence supporting a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation." In contrast, a second autopsy, commissioned by Floyd's family, was performed by Michael Baden, a pathologist and former New York City chief medical examiner and Allecia Wilson, director of autopsy and forensic services at the University of Michigan Medical School. They found that  "... evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia" and that the death was a homicide!

By the end of MAY-26, all four officers were fired. On MAY-29, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was the first white Minneapolis police officer ever to be charged with the death of a black civilian.

Widespread protests:

The incident also triggered many demonstrations across the U.S.:

A series of massive protests occurred in Washington DC. The one on Saturday, JUN-06 was the largest ever, and involved over 200,000 people. One involved police clearing a street of protesters with tear gas so that President Trump could carry his Bible, cross the road from the White House, and go to St. John’s Episcopal Church.

On JUN-04, NPR station WBFO tweeted a video that showed police officers in Niagara Square, Buffalo, NY walking toward an elderly man while enforcing curfew. Two officers pushed the man , causing him to fall and hit his head on the sidewalk. Blood spurted from one of his ear.

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What particularly distressed me was that, after the man fell was rendered unconscious, dozens of police continued to walk past him.

More than 500 Minnesota National Guard personnel were mobilized in Minneapolis to handle a series of demonstrations.

Protests extended beyond the U.S. to include London, UK; Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; Copenhagen, Denmark; Milan, Italy; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mexico City, Mexico; Dublin, Ireland; Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; Krakow, Poland; and probably other locations.

A Canadian protest occurred in Fort McMurray in Alberta. It was estimated to have been the largest ever in the city. ₁₁

A major protest involving more than 1,000 Australians marched through downtown Sydney on JUN-02, protesting Floyd's death and local police abuse against aboriginals in their country causing death .

"Black Lives Matter" public opinion polls:

Two Morning Consult/Politico polls conducted on 2017-AUG-17 to 29, and 2020-JUN-6 to 7 showed a major positive shift in the public's support of the concept "Black Lives Matter:" Support increased among all groups over the 6 month interval. ₁₂

Support for Joe Biden to select a person of color as his vice presidential pick:

Eli Yokley, writing for MorningConsult.com, discussed support for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for President in the 2020 elections select a person of color as a vice-presidential candidate. Their public opinion poll showed that support increased from 22% in 2020-APR to 29% in June. Increase in support for a black Vice Presidential candidate was driven mainly by whites and liberals. The percentage of all of those polled who said that it didn't matter fell from 53% to 48%. The margin of error of the polls was 2 percentage points.

Some have suggested Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, DC,  Atlanta GA Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms or her fellow Georgia Democrat, Stacey Abrams for the position.

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "About Race," United States Census, at: https://www.census.gov/
2. Hansi Lo Wang, " 'Negro' Not Allowed On Federal Forms? White House To Decide," National Public Radio, 2017-DEC-13, at: https://www.npr.org/
3. From a search of the Bible Gateway web site at: https://www.biblegateway.com/
4. From the English version of the Qur'an, Verse 4:1, by Yusuf Ali at: http://corpus.quran.com/
5. "Mitochondrial Eve," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
6. "Y-chromosomal Adam," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
7. "How Skin Color Is Determined," Science Daily, 2018-FEB-27, at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/
8. Drew Thomas, "Racial IQ Differences among Transracial Adoptees: Fact or Artifact?" Journal of Intelligence, 2016-DEC-23, at: www.mdpi.com/
9. Madina Toure, "NYC Has the Most Segregated Schools in the Country. How Do We Fix That?," Observer, 2018-JUN-14, at: https://observer.com/
10. "Killing of George Floyd," Wikipedia, as of 2020-JUN-07, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/
11. Edward Keenan, "Washington sees largest protests in the city yet over the killing of George Floyd," Toronto Star, 2020-JUN-06, at: https://www.thestar.com/
12. "Voters Increasingly Likely to Prioritize a Person of Color as Biden’s VP Pick," Morning Consult, 2020-JUN-10, at: http://morningconsult.com/

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How you may have arrived here:

Original posting: 2018-APR-22
Most recent update: 2020-JUN-16
Author: B.A. Robinson