Written by Tanyia Maxted Tuesday, 23 March 2010 13:24
EVERY human being is genetically an African, according to a science advisor to US President Obama visiting Perth universities this month.
A keynote speaker at Murdoch University’s National Symposium on Racism, the renowned string theorist Professor Sylvester Gates said race cannot be used as scientific basis to argue the intrinsic inferiority or superiority of one group of people versus another.
Prof Gates explained that modern science, along with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and the study of archeological genomics, proves humanity originated in southern Africa and that the modern world has essentially been peopled by a group of about 200 Africans.
He said genetics teaches us that when you look at what are conventionally called ‘races’ there are people in each race that are more like those in other races than their own.
“Scientifically you look at the blood cells, you look at the genomic structure and there are people who are Africans that are more like people in Europe than they are to other Africans.
“That’s just how nature works because we are in fact one family.”
Prof Gates said Darwin, whose letters written from Brazil observing African slaves at goldmines reveal him to be an anti-slavery supporter (see darwin-online.org.uk), shows how every human being is related with his Tree of Life.
He also said the words of the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, reveal the Jewish physicist and refugee from racism in Germany to be pained by the attitudes and prejudices in his adopted homeland towards blacks in what Einstein describes as “deeply entrenched evil” in America.
Prof Gates said multicultural people in Australia need to set their own “moon shot” in place – referring to his country’s ability to overcome the odds to send people to the moon and elect a black Presidential candidate who is now the first black President.
While working with the University of Western Australia’s School of Physics' Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theory Group he has received an honorary UWA Doctor of Science degree.
To watch his full talk at the Murdoch anti-racism event go to http://www.murdoch.edu.au/News/National-symposium-on-racism---view-and-download-sessions/
