The ... level of self belief on Twitter is quite remarkable and apparently I don’t know much about the human genome or genetics. That’s me told ...
More seriously, conversations about ethnicity and race are loaded because it is both a big active part of many societies and discourse - most obviously US but many western countries (UK included of course) and >>
<< for many people this is a key part of their identity. There are shallow issues here -it is far too easy to use words that mean different things or for people to read strong motivational stances or inferences into statements
(I apologise for my missteps and note the complexity of writing about this)
But going past this there is still a set of core beliefs about group level biological essentialism - a sort of fundamental “we” are different in a deep way from “them”.
It’s not right, not healthy, and for people where this is a big part of their identity / soul / personality it’s a heavily knotted ball of emotion and belief to untangle
I always draw hope here from the Premier League football fans. Strong self belief. Passion. Clear understanding of group identity. But openness to new fans, and a level of mutual respect most of the time for other fans
Before you think I’m misty eyed about football fans I have hung out with some mid 1980s Chelsea fans. So I know their dark side. But broadly it’s a happy, mutually respected world
Asking humans to lose all their tribal instincts is probably hopeless. Asking them to channel their tribal instincts to largely inoffensive, enjoyable things ... now we’re talking.
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