Is Metamorphism of Humans’ a Cure for Racism?

Everything is GMO nowadays; the only thing that is not touched for now by scientists is to genetically modify human beings. If scientists ever plan to include humans and make a gene change, the first thing they should probably do is to transform race and color of humans equally and automatically. When this happens, I am very sure that the racism will cease to exist because you and everyone in your family goes through this change and there is a less chance that you are racist. What we cannot decide for ourselves is race; parents and the country you are born with.

Have you ever thought I wish I was “that person”? You might want to be that other person for reasons of wealth or the smarts that that person has or the beauty or the ideology or the principles they believe in or skills they possess or a quality they have, or anything else that you admire or liked in that other person. There is nothing wrong with ambitions and aspirations to be a better person and to be a part of the better society. Today, we want our world to be better for all of us, we want it to be one which values human values and disgraces racism or is still haunted by racism, we really want to give our kids a better world than what our parents could give us. However, we hope that our world does not go back in time and reverse all great achievements we have earned as a human race. We don’t want to create a world where due to race relations our children wish that they want to be “that other person” because of race. The day this happens, we just fail as human beings.

As a kid, as I gazed and gazed at the wide variety of differences in the environment around me. Now something that evoked my thoughts from the surroundings was to examine the differences between me and my surroundings and comparing the differences. These differences were with respect to toys, clothes, family, bike, etc. In respect of each of these material things, I thought they were sometimes way better than me and sometimes they were way worse than me. I understand now that the better then was defined by what I wanted at that time. Let me give a small example: when I was a kid, a friend of mine had a Candy store who always brought a bag of candy and distributed it among friends. He was the most sought after friend and everyone wanted to be friends with him, and I wanted to be him.

As I grew older, I started to realize and remind myself that there is a range for everything either materialistic or non-materialistic, and in this scale we are graded by some factors. For each factor, I find myself sometimes in the middle of the scale and sometimes I am not. Each of us is constantly striving for a better life based on these factors. The world we live in is made of so many factors and each individual has his or her own priorities among those factors. We are all on the journey with respect to these priorities; some are comfortable where we are, some like the journey to reach a priority, and some others who reached their destination like the journey they took. Some might have had an advantage to start with and some may not. But something that everyone should have is equal opportunity. We all strive hard for a better life and lifestyle in this one life given to us.

One thing that continues to plague some people is race and color. These differences of race and color allow people to be biased against others and cause unfair treatment of some people. Now we know that mistreatment of others – human beings and animals -- is unethical. If we believe in God and believe that He has created all the human beings equal, then why are we treating some unfairly based on ethnicity and race?

Coming back to my hypothesis of the metamorphosis of humans with respect to color and race, if we intend to do it, it might solve one problem. Though racial bias and discrimination are well-documented, other biases may exist towards any social group. One’s age, gender, gender identity, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation, wealth, weight, and many other characteristics are subject to bias. There are two types of biases: the first one is a conscious bias based on race, ethnicity, religion and color; the second one is an unconscious bias based also on age, gender, gender identity physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation, weight, and many other characteristics. Now with all kinds of biases, our hypothetical experiment of metamorphism gets very complicated.

I guess I may have found the cure and it might help all biases that exist. I believe that it is not the gene that needs to be changed, it is your attitude. All you need is to put yourself in other people’s shoes and that is good enough. We are graded by our own selves and also by others on our self-worth and the journey we take from where we start to where we are. What does not matter is where we are born and what color we are born with. It may look as if the cure for racism lies in the metamorphism of humans but that might not be true. It is our mindset – our mental metamorphism -- and thinking that needs the change and not the gene change.

By Avinash Puli