History 2.0: Human Races

Written by Frank Li

The dramatic rise of China over the past four decades not only has rocketed China’s economy to the top of the world (in terms of PPP – purchasing power parity), with no end in sight, but also is ending western dominance over the past 200 years. It has at least two huge implications to the world:

1. End of democracy, as we practice it today.
2. A new race relationship, with “yellow” becoming more prominent.

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In a previous post (History 2.0: Western Liberal Democracy is a Big and Fat Lie!), I talked about implication #1. In this post, I will talk about implication #2: human races.

1. What is human race?

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia – Race (human categorization):

A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society. First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century the term race began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits. Modern scholarship regards race as a social construct, that is, a symbolic identity created to establish some cultural meaning. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is not an inherent physical or biological quality.[1][2]

Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies[3] that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Scientists consider biological essentialism obsolete,[4] and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits.[5][6][7][8][9]

2. Race in English vs. Chinese

“Race” is a very interesting word in English. Here are two meanings:

1. Categorization, such as blacks or whites in human races.
2. Competition, such as an auto race.

Does the term “human race” in English imply “human competition”? It seems so. In contrast, the corresponding term in Chinese is just “human categorization”, without any implication of competition.

Does English make more than Chinese in this case?

Yes! Here is why: mankind must have been competitive from the start, or we would not have survived as a species. In addition to competing against nature and all other species, we have been competing within our own species!

3. The race for superiority between human races

On a very broad basis, there are five human races, as shown below:

To keep it simple, let’s focus on just three: yellow (Asia), white (Europe), and black (Africa).

3.1 Yesterday

The race for superiority between human races reached its zenith after 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered the “new” world. It was almost over by 1940, when white Europeans had colonized almost the entire rest, subjugating members of all the other races. However, there was one major exception: Japan.

Japan, a “yellow” country, not only advanced like the white Europeans, both economically and militarily, but also behaved alike by colonizing Korea and most of China. Moreover, Japan had launched two major wars against the whites as follows:

1. Japan won the first Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
2. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The end of World War II in 1945 brought a new era to mankind: the beginning of the end of western colonialism – Decolonization of Asia and Africa. As a result, many Asian and African countries became independent from white Europeans.

By 1990, several Asian countries had become hugely successful economically, as highlighted by the image below.

3.2 Today

After the turn of the 21st century, China, another “yellow” country, showed up on the world stage, big time …

Today, China and Japan are the 2nd and 3rd largest economies in the world, respectively. Therefore, world dominance is no longer mostly “white”. Rather, it is mostly “white and yellow”.

3.3 Tomorrow

The world will likely become more “yellow” in the coming decades, led by China, which is well on its way to becoming the largest economy on earth by 2020.

It’s time for the blacks, as a race, to demonstrate their competitiveness by at least well managing their own countries (i.e. those with a black majority)! Unfortunately, most black countries are very poor. Two extreme examples:

1. Haiti: It is the only black country in the Americas that is truly independent (e.g. not even a member of the Commonwealth of Nations like Jamaica), and it is dirt poor.
2. Liberia: It is one of the poorest countries in the world. What’s so special about Liberia? Read: Founding of Liberia.

For more, read: List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita.

The most promising black country is South Africa. As a BRICS member, South Africa is uniquely positioned to be successful in the coming decades. But will it happen? I am concerned. Here is a recent news story: ‘The time for reconciliation is over’: South Africa votes to confiscate white-owned land without compensation.

4. Americas

It’s really a misnomer to say Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas – Human beings had been living here for more than ten thousand years before that!

After 1492, the Europeans poured into the Americas. With the indigenous people almost totally wiped out (via war and diseases), the Europeans competed among themselves. Here are the two biggest deals:

1. Between South America and North America, the North clearly won the race for superiority.
2. In North America, the English-speaking folks clearly won the race for superiority against the Spanish-speaking and French-speaking folks. See image below.

5. Races in the U.S.

There are four races in the U.S., as shown below. Unfortunately, the red population is so small now that let’s leave it out in this discussion.

With that, it can be said that the U.S. is a smaller version of the world, in which all three main races try to co-exist in harmony, while competing at the same time.

However, the U.S. is different from the rest of the world in that it was a new country that started with the best theory of equality (e.g. all men are created equal), but the worst practice of equality (i.e. slavery)!

How can the huge gap between the theory and the practice be filled?

Great efforts!

By overcoming many obstacles (e.g. Chinese Immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts and Jim Crow laws), we have made good progress over the past 200 years.

Overall, racial diversity has so far served the U.S. well. Two examples:

1. Adolf Hitler, an extreme racist who believed in his master race, considered America’s racial diversity to be much inferior to his racial purity. As a result, he dared to declare war on America – What a mistake! Japan also viewed America similarly, resulting in its fatal mistake of attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941.
2. America became “the shining city on the hill” after WWII!

Nevertheless, the gap remains big today.

In good times, racial problems become less obvious. For example, after WWII, America experienced prosperity unprecedented in human history, with remarkable advancement in racial equality (e.g. Civil Rights Act of 1964).

In bad times, racial problems become worse. Three historical examples:

1. During the Great Depression, many Mexican immigrants were treated very poorly. For more, read: Mexican Repatriation.
2. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, America declared war on Japan, followed by the total mistreatment and abuse of Japanese-Americans. For more, read: Internment of Japanese Americans.
3. China bashing. For more, read: China Bashing: A U.S. Political Tradition and Peter Navarro: Death by China.

Two recent examples:

1. Starbucks across U.S. closed for racial bias training.
2. Watch the video below.

More profoundly, unless America changes fundamentally as I have suggested, America will continue to decline. Consequently, there will be more bad times ahead. Because of that, many problems, racial or otherwise, will become bigger and more evident. Two highlights:

1. High unemployment: The rate is especially high in the black community. How do we really address it?
2. Democracy: At this pace, Hispanics will become the majority in America by 2050, if not sooner. Will most American politicians be Hispanic? Will America then become Mexico? Will Spanish replace English as the official language in America?

6. Races in western Europe

After plundering the world over the past 500 years, western Europe (e.g. Britain, Spain, and France) is now bearing an ultimate consequence: various races and religions.

The problem has been worsened by the E.U. expansion to the east, resulting in many eastern Europeans migrating to the West, destroying the “way of life” for many local whites. As a result, popularism is on the rise all over western Europe.

Two informative readings:

1. What is Germany, Anyway?
2. What is the U.K., Anyway?

7. Discussion

The world has been, and will continue to be, pyramidal (Pyramid Theory II), with some races (or countries, or ethnic groups, or people) rising above the others. In other words, the race for superiority between human races will continue, so will the challenge for us all to be able to live together in harmony.

For America’s three chief competitors, race is not a major issue, because of their lack of racial diversity. Specifically,

1. China: It has many big problems, but race is not one of them, largely because Han Chinese is more than 90% of the population.
2. Japan: It has even fewer racial problems than China, because more than 99% of the population is Japanese.
3. Russia: 80% are Russians, and almost 100% are white.

For more info, read: Ethnicity and Race by Countries.

So far, America has benefited from racial diversity more than any other country. But things change over time. America will likely face far more racial problems in the coming years, thanks to its declining economy.

Worse yet, America may even become Mexico by 2050, thanks to democracy, as we practice it today!

Worst of all, most Americans are blithely unaware of it or simply in denial!

Fortunately for America, I believe I have the most accurate diagnosis for America, as well as the best solution. Better yet, both have been well documented in my last book: American Democracy – Why is it failing & how to fix it? Please read and judge for yourself!

8. Closing

The rise of China will end the “norm” in the West, making many hidden problems more obvious, of which race is one (and religion is another). Is the West prepared to deal with it? This post has helped a little bit, hopefully …

Now, please sit back and watch the short video below.