What Is the Future of Black Identity?
The heritage of slavery will count for less in the future than in the past. One may expect that the stigma but not the memory of slavery will pass away. But we also understand that slavery goes on even today, and in many societies, wherever some people are able to gain power over the bodies of others. The differences we have labeled as “race” will also count for less in the future than they have in the past. The most recent discoveries in human biology show how tiny the variations between one “race” and another are, so that black identity cannot be seen as reflecting any deep and inherent disparity. Phenotypical “race” is now known to consist of a set of superficial differences in an overwhelmingly similar human population. The genetic differences among African populations are greater than those separating Africans from other populations. By that logic, there is no such thing as racial purity. By the same logic, “mixes” can no longer be treated as intermediate in biological terms. Thes
