It is now 2010 and four things come to mind as I ponder the issue of race deeper:

• A study, perhaps conducted two or three years ago, that indicated that when people were asked which face they found most attractive, it was the faces of those of mixed Asian and European genes that consistently emerged as the favourite.
• In the recently revived musical “Hair” a song has some of the black, (African), girls in the cast praising white boys and some of the white boys praising black (African) girls.
• Comments by the chairman of the racial equality organisation in England, Trevor Phillips, that at first, perhaps in the 1990’s, supported multi-culturism, but who later turned to supporting full integration.
• That all reproduction, seen from a Darwinist point of view is a gamble on circumstances to come in the future that are not seen or known and genetic risks as to which genetic combinations are viable for survival in the future

 My youth was, for those who have read this site, tied fairly closely to what proved to be a misguided optimism about hippy culture but which did lead to the enlightenment I have written of. this would indicate that somewhere the idea was going wrong though right in many ways  in many of its principles. These principles being reduced consumerism, open relationships and an end to war.

I am in the position where I can speak from the experience of having had a Nigerian girlfriend for a while. An ex-girlfriend asked me if it was true that “Once you have tried ‘black’ you don’t go back” which was an expression I had not heard. It is not but my view is that Trevor Phillips is wrong on both his ‘guesses’. It is probably orthogonal to cultural and religious views but I think the reason he is wrong is about sex. My relationship with my Nigerian girlfriend did involve warmths of feeling I had not experienced before and I am therefore more of the view taken by the cast of “Hair”. That is to say that sex between the races is worthwhile but that reproduction may not be. Everybody takes a gamble when they reproduce. Some of these gambles lead to obvious failures such as babies born with inherent problems that lead to an early death. Some may lead to less obvious failures such as problems in later generations through further unknown combinations to come of genes and circumstances. Also, if we engage in multi-culturism, as Trevor Phillips used to advocate, we would rarely engage in sexual relationships which crossed the boundaries of those cultures but if we integrate fully, which he has more lately recommended then the magical warmth of cross race sexuality, which I am clearly not the only one to experience, would be lost, as we iterated towards looking alike, (a sort of grey spiritual, slightly brown skinned race across the face of the planet). That of course is not to say that some reproduction across the race divides should not occur, it is more to say that the issue of race should be considered as this site recommends biodiversity. In other words as a positive thing.

I therefore recommend:

• seeing the musical “Hair” if you can (on in London in spring 2010 as I write),
• ignoring Trevor Phillips, the British Tsar of race relations.
• being careful about who you reproduce with,
• enjoying sex across the race divide if it comes your way.