I have recently read "The Book of Life" edited by Stephen Jay Gould. Near the end, the book talks about the evolution of humans. This is what started me thinking about racism. It describes two models of possible evolution. The "out of Africa" theory states that the species Homo Sapiens developed in Africa and then spread across the world. It also states that while there may have been other species of Homo around, they did not influence us at all and eventually became extinct. This is the theory that I believe in.

There is also the multi-regional theory which states that Homo Erectus spread about 1 My ago. They then developed regional differences. These have continued through to the present day but gene flow between the regions kept Homo Sapiens a single species. Some people have taken this theory and given it a twist. They say that Homo Erectus spread out, differentiated and then interbred with modern humans to give us our present regional differences. This theory is largely supported by Eurocentric racists. They use it to show that the European stock is more pure and modern. These people say that there was inter-species breeding, yet they wouldn't even think of breeding with someone of the same species but different race.

Then it dawned on me; perhaps racism is a modern expression of a trait that we used to prevent inter-species breeding. We can see such mechanisms in other species such as birds and insects. Insects that look alike prevent inter-species breeding with the use of different scents. Birds do it with the use of different songs. Humans and other primates, being primarily visual species, would most likely do it by sight. Up until 30,000 years ago we lived with other species that looked similar. We needed and used this visual discrimination to prevent inter-species breeding. When the "Neanderthals" died off, we no longer needed this trait. Unfortunately there was no evolutionary force to cause this trait to die off. So it remained with us, dormant for most of the last 30,000 years.

As we started shrinking the planet through transportation, we started to encounter more and more people that did not look "like us". This long dormant trait was rekindled in us and was combined with fear and ignorance to create racism. In the last hundred years we have been fighting against it. This has been a very hard uphill struggle. This is because we have been fighting it from the view that it is entirely a frame of mind or personal choice. I think we could go further in eliminating racism by realizing that part of it is natural.

This discrimination by sight does not only show itself in racism. Teens use visual cues to display rebellion. They make themselves look different and we react with disgust. We then become accustomed to their looks, so they change them, usually to a more radical look. Business seems to have knowen this for a long time. The easiest way to get many people of different backgrounds to work together in a positive way is to have them dress the same, reducing the visual difference.

Widespread education and interaction between the races could be used to increase our tolerance levels of the other races and show us that they are not a different species. There has been a long running argument about which is more important to our development: nurture or nature. They end up being equally important. "Nature" is our genes. Each of our traits can be viewed as a dial. Our genetics determine where the minimum and maximum are. "Nurture" is the environment we grow up in. It is the factor that determines where the dial is set. A proper education program will help set the dial as far towards tolerant as can be. This method will not eliminate racism. Some persons "most tolerant" will still be unacceptable to the rest. At this point we can only hope that the more educated and tolerant people will shun them, preventing them from passing on the stronger form of the trait.

The other thing to note is that, if my hypothesis is correct, the education program would have to continue forever. When we provide "racial tolerance" programs to try and counteract a problem, it is usually local and temporary. If my hypothesis is correct it would show that the current stop-gap measures are temporary and ineffective .If the tendency to discriminate by looks is natural, then we must always try to prevent it from combining with fear and ignorance. A "cultural awareness" course should be introduced to the school curriculum.

I welcome any other ideas to reduce/eliminate racism from the view that it is partly natural. I also wish to emphasize that although I am saying that part of it is natural, I am not trying to excuse the racist injustices of the past. I am only trying to get people to think of solutions to this problem from a different perspective in the hopes that something that is effective will be reached.