Skin color doesnt matter. Think about it. Of all the ways we can divide people up into groups, this is perhaps the most arbitrary and meaningless. Yet so much of our lives are impacted by skin color. Politics, wars, laws, personal self-image or self-esteem are all many times tied directly to skin color. Even those of us who do not think about skin color are still affected by this obcession, as the actions of other people affect us.
Humans simultaneously evolved and developed culturally in different climates around the world, and thus acquired varying degrees of shading to our skin, which was related to survival ability via genetics. But today there is no biological reason why one skin color is better than another, other than the rewards or merits-based inadequacies that are built into our social systems. Psychologically we associate skin color with various beliefs or feelings; this has usefulness in helping us define a coherent worldview and sense of self or purpose, but only because we are so childish in our need for these things. We do not define ourselves, we let others define us. We need to create groups, and then determine which are ingroups and which are not, and then align ourselves with the ingroup. In this way we fake a sense of self-esteem and purpose in life.
But the rational, self-aware and emotionally mature person will recognize how futile and childish this is. It is like we never grew up and became adults. Seriously, just think about it for a minute, and try to be objective. Think of how we would be perceived by an alien race who comes to earth; we are completely obcessed with something as trivial as what color we are. We run around, fight, spend our lives immersed in this vital importance of color, completely obcessed with it. It is like the Dr. Seuss book where half the people like butter side up bread, and the others like butter side down. It does not matter. Think how pathetic we all are, for letting something like color affect us in this way. Even those who “fight against racism” or “for equality” buy into the importance of color, waging war of the minority color against the majority color. No one truly rejects color as unimportant and trivial, which it is.
We are different colors, and we revolve our entire lives around this fact, directly or indirectly. Yes there are psychological, social and evolutionary reasons for this, but the fact that we cannot overcome these reasons points to how weak and blind we are individually. Anyone who cares at all, one way or another, about what color someone is is a child. Immature, lacking self-awareness and true consciousness and intelligence; likewise for those people who let what color they are, or are not, become a part of their personal identity. We can recognize the importance of skin color in our world, which has social and political systems geared around this fact, while simultaneously rejecting this importance as absurd. It is a sign of our personal inadequacy, to depend on these sorts of superficial groupings. It does not matter what color you are: if you “hate” other people who are of a certain color, like some better than others, have beliefs about one color or another, or blame aspects of your life on one color or another, or the fact that you are a certain color, then you are emotionally immature. Yes, there are inadequacies in our social systems, and yes people are treated differently based on what color they are. It is perfectly fine to recognize these facts, and to work to change or overcome them if you are personally affected by them. But to “buy into” these distinctions, to believe that they truly matter, to get emotionally invested or define your self-esteem and who you are based around one color or another, is rediculous.
Children lack the moral conviction, integrity and emotional maturity to define themselves, think critically and rationally, and stand by their beliefs – and so children think in terms of groups, ingroup and outgroup, i.e. an individual is only as good as the groups he is in. For an adult to think in these ways betrays just how much of a child they really are. Yes, psychologically we are primed to think in terms of groups and superficial differences . . . but if you have never overcome this fact, which is left over from childhood and from earlier evolutionary imperatives, then you have never really grown up. Yes, it “matters” practically what color we are, as there are real world effects of these differences. But we can recognize this fact while at the same time realizing how pointless and absurd it is, and refusing to let it define us or who we are. Refuse to buy into it.
Judge people as individuals only. Racism and affirmative action are both absurd, and for exactly the same reason. It is time that we all grew up, as individuals and as a species.
