> Human Diversity

It might be a good time to study this now, as globalisation stands to assimilate us all into one big gunge, hey!
This topic can very quickly slip into a discussion purely about racism, when it should be about the opposite. In all truth, it’s about far more general concepts.
As I understand the evolution of humans, we have really only had a relatively short time to go about diversifying, and therefore the genetic discrepancies between 'completely different' races are in actual* fact merely a handful of varying codifications in our good ol' DNA. This fact, coupled with the universal knowledge that humans just love to stick to what they know, maintain the status quo, work in THEIR groups, and join and identify with a team/country, means ‘human diversity’ becomes an endangered species.
People clearly fear the change that difference can bring, and so suppress physical and cultural differences – i.e. racism. So we sit here, and not just the culture, but the genetic diversity of American Indians, former Incas, and Aboriginal Australians is being lost. But that’s easy to stomach if you ultimately believe in the pragmatic and simplistic view of ‘survival of the fittest’ and such banter, because that would mean that the European genes are simply superior.
Anyway, much can be said, but in all the discussion surrounding ‘human diversity’, we very rarely hear about what is so central. Jazz, you mention the reflection on ‘what it is to be human’ – many can neither celebrate the differences between us, nor embrace their likeness in other peoples and cultures. Someone once pointed out that the most bitter battles are those fought between brothers, for brothers are most alike – this is a universal truth of human conflict. Regardless of how similar or dissimilar we are though, we always find a way of segregating, separating and categorising even the most abstract differences in entities as if people and life were a packet of assorted pralines. If empathy dies and hate takes over, then precious little will stop the erosion of human diversity.
The opposite of physical diversity is tantamount to inbreeding – and now that scientists have ‘proven’ that having children with a cousin is ‘quite safe’, we can all do it legally. Reflect though just for a tick on where that has brought the Jewish community of New York (see Unnatural Selection by Lois Wingerson or info on the honourable Rabbi Ekstein).
The opposite of celebrating cultural diversity is close-mindedness, and it’s a pretty dangerous world when there are individuals pig-headed enough to travel the world with the opinion that they are missionaries, rather than ambassadors to their culture.
If I was not so overcome with a need to sponge up all the diversity that Europe has to offer me then I would probably have settled back in Australia. For all the 'multi-culteral' hoo-hah, I could not live there and maintain friendships with (speaking nationally in a post-nationalist world :-):
Austrians, Belgians, Swiss, French, Britians, Irish, Germans, Dutch, Sweds, Finns, Turks, Greeks, Croatians, Italians, Bosians, Spaniards, Syrians, Iranians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Afganis, Indians, Hungarians, Czechs, Polish, Luxembourgians(?), Romanians, Egyptians, Chilians, Chinese, Japanese, the list goes on.
I feel so lucky :-)

Happy studies, Jazz!