So, Donald Trump wants more immigrants from Norway and other non-sh*thole countries, not Haiti and El Salvador. We all know what he means. {{Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more, guv’nor}}
Norwegians are from northern Western Europe where all the people with the creamy pale skin are from, right? White skin, blue eyes, long silky blonde hair. For time immemorial.
{{insert game show wrong answer sound here}}
Let me introduce you to Cheddar Man.
Cheddar Man was discovered in a cave in England back in 1903. He’s almost a complete skeleton and his bones are dated to 9000 years ago. That’s when hunter gatherers were still roaming Europe. Thanks to modern molecular biology techniques, his DNA has been retrieved and sequenced. Using the information from his DNA, coupled with 3D imaging and modeling of his skull, we now have a pretty good idea of what our ancient English Rose ancestors looked like.
I give you … CHEDDAR MAN…
Not what you expected?
I’m not surprised.
It turns out that light skin mutations happened about 6000 years ago. The blue eyes are striking. Cheddar Man was dark skinned and we’re not talking tanned. We’re talking dark brown to black, according to the paper.
Oh, you say, but migration of light skinned people into Britain displaced his people.
{{insert game show wrong answer sound here}}
In fact, Cheddar Man’s ancestors migrated from Southern Sweden. That’s where the blue eyes came from. AND it turns out that Cheddar Man’s descendants still live in the Cheddar area.
Yup, Adrian Targett, a retired history teacher, is a direct descendent of Cheddar Man. Targett is as white as the driven snow. Which just goes to show how stupid it is that we put so much emphasis on skin color mutations as a basis for segregation and discrimination. (Read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond for a rational explanation of how we all got to this point in human evolution).
It’s pretty obvious that Targett is descended from a black dude. As are many Britons no doubt. And other Western Europeans. They’re just trying to pass for white to get into this glorious country of ours where they can die from some untreated ailment Rand Paul style, and work themselves crazy with little vacation time like all the other Americans.
We’re number 1! We’re number 1!
🙄
Please, Trumpers, no more “us” vs “those people”. We ARE those people.
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Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Generosity of spirit in trump supporters is lacking. Great post but no amount of logic or education can change them. But they are only some 20% of this country. So, if we get the voting machinery right and keep Russia out, we may be able to get the majority to win again. But we first have to get rid of the guy in the WH. Democrats have to win both chambers of Congress in 2018.
I no longer put the primary blame on the Trump voters, or Trump himself, or even his master, Putin. I think the primary blame falls on all the voluntary non-voters.
I emphasize voluntary to exclude the people who were prevented from voting by GOP chicanery or plain bad luck. The people I am blaming are the people who didn’t really want Trump, but didn’t bother to get out and vote for Hillary because EEEEUWWW NERDETTA.
Agree with that. In a two party system, all Bernie bros and others who voted for third party, have to realize that they may not have a choice for protest votes especially when the stakes are as high as it was in 2016. People seem to have realized that judging by the Dem turnout in elections since 2016. Bur more needs to happen.
I read somewhere that some people are spooked by things that do not belong. If it’s not identical to the rest of the gazelle herd, they get freaked out. Like a gazelle with different pelt patterns, or a trans gazelle, or a female gazelle who doesn’t want to be paired with the same male gazelle for life. It makes them feel oogy. It would explain the witch hunts of the 16th to 18th centuries for sure.
There are studies that show that conservative voters who are attracted to authoritarian leaders have larger amygdalas. They scare easily. There’s always going to be a big daddy type who knows how to push that button. Without more education in analytical thinking, they’re going to be suckered every single time. Probably nothing we can do about it.
But this insane and irrational obsession with typing darker skin tones as “those people” has got to stop. None of us should tolerate that shit.
I marvel that the USA managed to become one of the richest, most powerful, scientifically and technically advanced nations on the planet, despite the Cavalier and Borderer cultures’ retarding it from Day One.
Okay, why are Spammy’s knickers twisted NOW? 🙄
Darker/whiter skin thing exists everywhere. Even in India with a plethora of shades of black to white, white is preferred. White has become synonymous with wealth and success, north versus south, with northern hemisphere predominantly white skin countries, richer and southern hemisphere predominantly darker skin countries, poorer. Once back home, there was a lecture by a well know Indian guy about this north v. south divide and he seemed aligned with the view the north deserves its wealth. There was a huge uproar and protest from the attendees. All this was why the Grand American Experiment was crucial that given the right opportunity, everyone can succeed, black, white, brown, whatever and everyone can live in harmony. Nation of immigrants from all over the world! Anthropologically (is that the word?) we are all the same but that idea is not accessible to everyone. America was trying to make that idea accessible and acceptable with its American Dream and the world is losing something of enormous value with what is happening in this country right now.
Shashi Tharoor I think recently was tweeting this factoid — India had 23% of global GDP before the Brits colonized and at the time of the independence, it was less than 4%. Colonization by European countries was the biggest factor for crippling many of the southern hemisphere countries.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/british-reduced-india-to-one-of-the-poorest-countries-shashi-tharoor-4439070/
Here is another article on the same topic:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/india-britain-empire-railways-myths-gifts