Bird Cliques, Speciation and Racism
I rode my bike into work again today, it was gorgeous out and there weren't even the usual half dozen fires smoldering down on the beach. Really a beautiful morning with small waves breaking on the beach and a slight, slight chill in the air.

I decided to drop down and cross the railroad trestle leading to the boardwalk because I like crossing over the river, especially its more estuary than river mouth. As much salt as fresh water mingling together under the bridge, if I squint a little bit then it could almost be seen as romantic.

And as I pedaled along the levee banks above the water, I noticed several fairly good sized groupings of birds floating in the water. There were the sea gulls all hanging out together, a small flock of geese honking away off by themselves, another group of sea gulls with a few random cormorants tossed in for contrast. And it occurred to me that, the birds were demonstrating a few principles that I'd been thinking about.

Racism and its definitively connected speciation in regards to these birds and to humans. These birds were congregating in a group of like birds for a reason. They were all separate and distinct species, a sea gull cannot mate with a cormorant and create a sea rant or cormogull, it just doesn't work. Unlike horses and donkeys, birds cannot cross breed. They aren't being racist, they're being speciaist (don't try to pronounce that one after a few drinks). And I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to make my point or even if there is a point anymore.

But the same logic of the birds cannot be applied to humans, there are no different races, there is no difference species of humans. There are cultural differences between groups of people but we are all human, we are all the same species. We can mate with a human from Ghana as easily (physically) as with someone from down the block. Dictionary.com defines race as a local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. Or, a group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. So I guess it is possible to be racist within one's own species.

I'm not sure if there's a viable evolutionary argument for it so perhaps its more cultural than biological. I don't know, I'm continually struck by how it seems that racial lines are being drawn more sharply rather than being blurred by the wide spread access to knowledge that the internet age represents. Racism, hate crimes and all out wars are being waged with greater frequency and massive destruction.

Is there any solution? Maybe there is and maybe there isn't but I keep getting that image from The Planet of the Apes in my head where Markie Mark (sorry, new version) is just having the hardest time comprehending how the monkeys are talking (and then later gets cuffed in the head for calling them monkeys and not apes). The irony is that we're primates too, monkeys who came down out of the tree, picked up tools, language and culture and whammo, we're the prettied up apes. Its a shame we can't all get along a little better though.

And alot of that comes down to cultural differences, beliefs and mores. Racism isn't about evolution, its about culture, its about intolerance, narrow mindedness and bull headed stupidity. Calling every latino or asian or black guy by some racial epithet overlooks the fact that we are all, up close, individuals well capable of stepping outside the boundaries of our racial norms. And if I ever had to really break down the number of times my own people, white Northern-Europeans, have screwed me over then I should be far less trustworthy of my own "people" than of others. But then, the counter argument there is proximity. Because I grew up away from alot of minorities, they were never really given the chance to mess me around. Who knows? Its personal, its macro-scoped from societal beliefs to individual actions and reactions.

Or maybe I should just say that the birds were pretty as I rode my bike past them this morning and leave it at that.

But hey, at least we're not skiing on pooh! Like this article about an Aussie ski hill that creates snow made from human waste. Umm, yeah, skiing on poop! And I thought the landfill ski hills outside of Chicago were bad. Thanks to Jay for the story connect, I'll have to read it in much more depth when I get the time.