Race of the Future
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The Race of the Future theory/idea states that due to the process of miscegenation, the mixing of different ethnicities or races, especially in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations, all the races are blending to become one race in the future. The idea was stated by Gottfried de Purucker, an author and theosophist. When asked about intermarriage in 1930, he said "the race of the future will be a composite, composed of the many different races on earth today. Let us also remember that all men are ultimately of one blood." [1]
Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi was an Austrian politician and geopolitician. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna and worked as journalist and editor of the journal "Paneuropa". Coudenhove-Kalergi held some controversial, less known, opinions about race mixing and the role of the Jews. In his book, Praktischer Idealismus, he wrote: "The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today's races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals."
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[edit] In the United States
[edit] History
The word miscegenation was used in an anonymous propaganda pamphlet printed in New York City in late 1864, entitled Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro. The pamphlet purported to be in favor of interbreeding of whites and blacks until the races were indistinguishably mixed, claiming that this was the goal of the United States Republican Party. The real authors were David Goodman Croly, managing editor of the New York World, a Democratic Party paper, and George Wakeman, a World reporter. The pamphlet soon was exposed as an attempt to discredit the Republicans, the Lincoln administration, and the abolitionist movement by exploiting the fears and racial biases common among whites. Nonetheless, this pamphlet and variations on it were reprinted widely in communities on both sides of the American Civil War by opponents of Republicans.
The British colony of Maryland was the first to pass an anti-miscegenation law (1664). [2] In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, many American states passed anti-miscegenation laws, often based on controversial interpretations of the Bible, particularly the story of Phinehas. Typically a felony, these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Sometimes the individuals attempting to marry would not be held guilty of miscegenation itself, but felony charges of adultery or fornication would be brought against them instead; Vermont was the only state to never introduce such legislation. In a fairly unique case, the Massachusetts legislature repealed its anti-miscegenation law in 1843. [3] This case, however, did little to halt anti-miscegenation sentiments in the rest of the country. Indeed, the constitutionality of anti-miscegenation laws was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1883 case Pace v. Alabama.
In 1948, the California Supreme Court in Perez v. Sharp effectively repealed the California anti-miscegenation statutes, thereby making California the first state in the twentieth century to do so. It would be nearly two decades more before these laws were struck down nationwide. In 1965, Virginia trial court Judge Leon Bazile sentenced to jail an interethnic couple who had married in Washington, D.C., writing:
- Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix. [4]
[edit] Today
The last anti-miscegenation law in the United States was overturned in 2000, when Alabama put the matter to a statewide vote. The law was overturned, though (according to Salon.com), 40% of voters elected to keep the law.
The proportion of multiracial children in the United States is growing. Interracial partnerships are rising, as are transracial adoptions. In 1990, about 14% of 18- to 19-year-olds, 12% of 20- to 21-year-olds and 7% of 34- to 35-year-olds were involved in interracial relationships (Joyner and Kao, 2005). [5]
[edit] Popular Culture
- The theory has also been popularized by Carlos Mencia on his show Mind of Mencia. In episode 2.05, Mencia hits the streets to find out what the race of the future would look like.
- The topic was the subject of frequent debate within The Doors, a Californian rock band. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek would espouse the virtues of a future unified "golden" race, while Jim Morrison lamented the dilution of individuality.
- The South Park episode Goobacks features people from the future that visit the past in search of work. In that future the entire planet is populated with the race of the future, being the only race in existence. South Park goes even further in this multiraciality: next to their race being a mix of all the races we know today, the language they speak is a mix of all the current languages.
- In some ethnic groups, the recessive charactaristics of Blonde or red hair and blue or green eyes have been regarded in popular culture as signs of that an individual is of mixed race but in some cultures (notably that of Nazi Germany) they have been seen as a sign of racial purity.
- Disappearing blonde gene was a hoax that started circulating in the media in 2002. According to this hoax, the WHO (or other experts) published a report that the gene responsible for blond hair is about to be extinct. WHO has issued a formal statement that it knows of no such report. [6]
