Evolution, like any other scientific theory, is simply an attempt to explain observed natural phenomena. People who do use the Theory of Evolution to support their own political agendas are simply trying to add a stamp of authority to their offensive prejudices. Basically, racists will latch onto anything if it appears to support their views. You find racist Christians using the Bible to “prove” that blacks are inferior to whites (e.g. God cursed the children of Ham and turned their skin black, therefore all blacks are cursed by God), or trying to use evolution to scientifically “prove” the same thing (e.g. God created the white “race” in His image, but blacks evolved from monkeys). Their ideas cannot stand up on their own, so they must try to find some well-known respectable ideas that appear to back them up. There is not really such a thing as “race”. We are all members of one species. The genetic differences between, Nelson Mandela, Louis Farrakhan and
Bill Clinton are insignificant. Go back up your family tree a few dozen generations and you are probably related to most people in your town. Back a few hundred and you’re related to most people in your country. Back a few thousand and you are a cousin of everyone on your continent. Goback far enough and it’s easy to see that every human on the planet is related. Blacks, whites, browns, yellows and reds did not all evolve separately. We are all descended from common ancestors. Keep going. Back several thousand more generations and you’re related to all the mammals on the planet, from rats to whales. Back more and you are a cousin of all vertebrates. The theory of evolution tells us how things work, not how we should treat each other. People who try to use religion or science to discriminate against others do so simply because, on their own, their beliefs can not stand up to any scrutiny.
Accepting the theory of evolution does not mean that you have to start killing people of a different color, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled or people who disagree with your beliefs. Accepting the theory of evolution is simply a case of understanding the world as it really is.
The theory of evolution should encourage people to have more respect for each other. Someone is not inferior to you because they have a different skin color or slightly different facial characteristics. You are directly, if distantly, related to them. All this stuff that people come out with, like “Well, I’m not a racist, but it’s a known fact that blacks have smaller brains.” is simply nonsense. It’s a fact that blacks have darker skin than whites.
Shipman, Pat. The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences and the Use and Abuse of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Jordon, Winthrop D. White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Spencer, Herbert. The Data Of Ethics. New York: P.F. Collier and Son.
Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.