Thursday, September 23, 2010

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Back to biking after being unable for a few weeks due to weather, client meetings, and travel to Chicago for my sister's wedding reception. Yesterday was a gorgeous day and today it poured. That's Vancouver...

I tuned my bike a week ago and got the gears shifting well, which is a nuisance when cycling for pleasure, and a real hassle for commuters like myself.  I bought a semi-pro bike repair stand and the right books, so in combination with internet sources and patience I can stay on top of repairs and tuning.

Today I listened to Arianna Huffington and her book on the declining standards of the U.S. middle class, and yesterday was a great show with Henry L. Gates, most famous for being charged for breaking and entering into his own Cambridge, MA home.  As a Harvard professor of African-American research, he used his position to publicize the event which eventually turned into the memorable White House "beer summit" with the police officers. Huffington was good, but Gates was great.

The show was based on this week's Fortune article by Dinesh D'Souza that claims President Obama thinks like his father, and therefore the country is being run by an African anti-colonialist. Newt Gingrich called the article "a stunning insight" and talked it up on Meet The Press, among other platforms.  D'Souza writes: “The U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s. This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions, is now setting the nation's agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son.”  This is strong stuff and makes an assumption that genes influence behaviour more than environment, which I can't believe is true.

Gates was excellent and took an academic approach to the situation, without being overly judgmental or harsh on the writers. The callers did that for him though and took their turns denouncing D'Souza and the Republican Party for launching a fear-based smear campaign.  People fear the strange and unknown, and many still can't come to grips with a president that looks so different from all previous presidents, and who sounds and acts very different to his predecessor.  Obama's opponents understand this very well and are playing on peoples' psychologies. 

Gates runs an organization that traces genetic ancestry and he offered some interesting statistics on the percentage of blacks in America with white genes. He stated that he has never found a black American (excluding recent immigrants with direct bloodline) with 100% African genes.  Gates joked that he himself is from the "African island of Ireland." This countered D'Souza's claim that Obama's genetic makeup influences the way he thinks, and if this was true, then all the white genes in black Americans should in some way think like whites. The conclusion from the guests was clearly that one's ancestors inform a person's beliefs, but don't dicate them. Personally speaking, I have to agree.  My ancestors are British, but my beliefs are those of a Canadian raised in Wisconsin.

One caller asked Gates to substantiate his claim that "humans are all descended from people who walked out of Ethiopia 50,000 years ago."  The caller wondered how this could be true when he was of Celtic origin in Scandanavia and does not resemble an African in any way.  Obviously "evolution" is taught less vigorously in some parts of America, and it was remarkable to hear the caller's disbelief that his ancestors were African.  Gates made the point that one must look at a long historical timeline, and that the caller is American today, he indeed is Celtic going back 10,000 years, but without doubt he is African going back 50,000 years.

It was an interesting hour and well worth listening too again.