A letter to Earth's dominant race.

Dear Homo sapiens sapiens,

Let's clear this up once and for all (if only it were this easy):

When it comes to humans, the word "race" is biologically meaningless. Even culturally, as a way to categorize people, race has no agreed upon definition. The length of a shoreline depends on what you use to measure it.

"For example, individuals who classify themselves as 'white' in Brazil are often considered 'black' in the U.S.A., and many other countries use similar or identical racial terms in highly inconsistent fashions (Fish, 2002)." -1

Biologically speaking, there is only one human race. Traits such as personality, skeletal structure and skin colour are environmental adaptations. In other words, it's easy to imagine that if I were you and you were me, you'd be me and I'd be you.

This may start an argument of nature vs. nurture. How much of who we are is fated to be, determined by our genetics and how much is moulded by our environment?

However, it's not unusual for identical twins, genetic clones, to have very different personality traits and lead completely different lives.

Are chance and fate mutually exclusive? I don't know.

You may see differences between us, like water fracturing light. You don't ever speak about the individuality of ants. That would be silly. Their similarities far outnumber their differences.

Yet, all humans are pretty much identical compared to everything else that we know exists. We all come from Africa. For fuck sakes, we all come from the stars! Doesn't that put things in perspective?

An expert once told me everything the scientists have learned about stars and it wasn't enough to satisfy my wonder.

Binary star systems billions of light years away collide with unimaginable force, sending ripples through spacetime as the ants argue about what is right and wrong instead of saying, "Wait! We're in conflict. That means one of us or both of us is wrong. Let's work together to find the truth." Ha! Imagine that in politics.

So now you may understand my rejection of your "politically correct" discussions about "race." Hopefully, now you can understand why I reject your authority completely when you tell me what I should do, how I should think, who I should admire...

You're not more than me.

Your judgments are made on yourself too.

You can call me any name you want if I am frustrating you. Why would I mind? I know who I am.

I am not a name or an image. I am not my achievements or failures. I am not my skin colour or body type. I am not even my personality or my past.

Beyond that, I'm open to discover with you. Together, let's move forward into the unknown and make life a celebration of the majesty and madness and mystery of all things.

But oh, how Homo sapiens sapiens love to argue. I wonder if you've ever noticed, every time you argue you believe you are right?

Sincerely,

Sky_pal