Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas…
Read Time:3 Minute, 51 Second
…And why all people matter
On occasion, the American public becomes infatuated with a subject and demands to hear about it in terms that are politically agreeable. Often we know why, although the trajectory of the obsession seems difficult to understand. Thus the brutal and fatal arrest of George Floyd seems to have launched a full-blown war of words, and worse, a war of bricks and gasoline and tear gas and billy clubs and all drenched with the accelerant we call righteous anger. But is it a war of words about arrest tactics and racism amongst the people arresting, trying, and jailing minorities?
I haven’t heard much about George lately. Surely there are some who would downplay that long-dead practice of chattel slavery but for the most part, if you got through High school or you’ve seen a lot of TV, you know it was among the many horrors of history that can no longer be redressed. It’s part of history that has no further place in an economy that no longer is possible. Reforming police practices, the courts, prosecutors, the laws, and the jails, however, is urgent and necessary. I keep hearing that a conversation is necessary and urgent. I don’t hear one. A slogan is not a conversation.
Depending on your preferred system of ego defense, what we’re seeing in the streets is either peaceful protest under attack by Fascists or a violent insurrection by elements that don’t necessarily exist. Which Credo comes closest to the truth seems to have less to do with reality and more to do with justifying authoritarianism, or with justifying a no longer possible response to slavery in the New World and SE Asia.
I do, however, have an interest in genetics, having spent decades researching my own ancestry (much to my surprise and dismay) and so after seeing an article in CNN.com about a genetic study, I followed the link to the American Journal of Human Genetics. CNN told me of 7 things I did not know about slavery. It didn’t apply even one time. I can give CNN a larger list of things they don’t know about me too and one of them has to do with history. Yes, I know slavery existed in the Agricultural colonies of many European nations. Yes, I know it was horrible and that horrible is an understatement. I also know those colonies are no longer colonies and gave up slavery 150 to 200 years ago as well as colonialism itself. The Industrial Revolution had much to do with it.
But the professional Journal quickly went past the point where the street professors gave up on academics and took up slogans and signs and shouting in the dark. It’s full of math. If…
“…given the possibility of ancestors from each of those time periods, the distribution of IBD segment lengths becomes: T(L|t1,t2,t3,ω1,ω2,ω3,lmin)=∏ni=1[ω1T(li|t1,lmin)+ω2T(li|t2,lmin)+ω3T(li|t3,lmin)], where t1, t2, and t3 are the TMRCA for post-slave trade, slave trade, and pre-slave trade, respectively, and L={l1,l2,…,ln} is the set of all IBD segment lengths observed in cM.” means something to you, you should read the American Journal of Human Genetics article.
Otherwise, if you’re like me, stick with CNN and the irrelevant search for descendants of long-dead peoples to blame for the horrors of history (without having to look at the nature of human history itself.) That the lives of people with any level of sub-Saharan African ancestry matter, and they certainly do, don’t ask for my support if you think my life doesn’t, my wife and children and grandchildren don’t, you’re not speaking for anyone but yourself. If you’re religious, I might refer you to Amos 7:
Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith Jahweh. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
It’s his way of saying all lives matter. It’s saying if one people are enslaved, all of us are yet equal, the offense offends us all, and all of mankind matters to the God of justice as much as it should to all of us.
In case you missed it: Trump Wants To Mark Jews For ‘Special Handling’
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Bring back Orwell!!!!!
Bring back Orwell!!!!
One wonders where the idea originates that all people are equal. I mean it is something that we humans, as a species, have come to largely believe in to some point. Is it something that exists because of our alleged intellect versus less intellectually gifted species of animals. I mean, in many animals the mark of superiority rests within strength and or ferocity. For example, Lions are considered are considered kings of the African plains primarily because of their power to kill most other animals (at least most of the time). Does that make them superior, or are we superior because we have devised a way to kill them.
When did we as beings first begin to decide what was equal and unequal. Personally, I think all of that stuff came along with religion. Who was good, who evil, who was better, who was not as good.
‘some are more equal than others’ (Animal Farm)
In Orwell we trust
Bring back Orwell!!!
All men are equal, regardless of race, creed, or color, not just black people. Oh. I just realized what I did, something you can’t do in 2020. All men AND WOMEN are created equal.
Unfortunately binary statements like that are unforgivable. All currently recognized and all genders to be revealed or created in future are equal, with the possible exception of old white men
Yes. Certainly with the exception of old white men. We can’t even yell at the kids to get off our lawns.