Racism is not a random evil. It’s the outcome of something more fundamental, the human tendency to observe physical variation and turn it into hierarchy.
Racism didn’t arise because people were born hateful. It arose because our species saw difference and chose to rank it.
This isn’t just about skin color. This is about how variation itself. Physical attributes like height, strength, body type, beauty, gender, shade, symmetry have been used as a weapon for a long time now. The more visibly “different” one is from whatever the dominant group defines as “ideal,” the more likely they are to be excluded, punished, or devalued.
We say we celebrate diversity. But we still live in a world where variation hurts.
Variation: A Feature That Became a Flaw
From a biological standpoint, variation is natural.
- Genes create different body types.
- Environment shapes or at least influences our skin, size, and strength.
- Evolution favors certain traits for survival.
But when we moved beyond tribal survival into other countries, institutions, media, as a result of living in a tiny globalized world, that same variation turned into a system of dominance. What once helped us survive became a basis to discriminate.
We didn’t just observe differences in physical attributes. We ranked them. We followed unwritten rules. We built beauty standards.
Racism was a brutal manifestation of this instinct. But it’s just one face of a deeper disease, the human urge to use what’s visible to decide what’s valuable.
If Nature Is So Smart, Why Not Create One Ideal Body?
Let’s ask the uncomfortable question:
If nature can evolve intelligent life, why did it not evolve one universally adaptable human body? Same height, weight, skin color, strength, hair color, eye color etc.,
One that’s comfortable in all climates? No room for discrimination.
Because nature never cared about fairness. It does not optimize for social harmony. It reacts not plans. It adapts locally, not globally.
A darker skin tone helps in harsh sun. A lighter one helps synthesize vitamin D in cold places. Tall bodies dissipate heat better. Shorter ones conserve it. Evolution is full of trade-offs, not perfection. Stupid humans will take forever to understand or even acknowledge it.
But globalization collapsed all those local adaptations into one shared space — cities, corporations, media and in that space, certain bodies, skin tones get favored, while others are silently punished.
Nature’s random variation doesn’t serve us anymore. But instead of adapting consciously, we’ve responded with hierarchy.
If There Is a Creator, Where’s the Responsibility?
Spiritual traditions try to make sense of this mess:
- Hinduism and Buddhism: Karma across lifetimes.
- Abrahamic faiths: Life is a test.
- Vedanta: All this is illusion.
But in practice, that does not comfort the child bullied for their skin color. It doesn’t help the job applicant rejected for looking “too different.” It does not heal the psychological damage done to someone who was told their nose, hair, or height is a problem.
These philosophies may offer perspective but they do not offer accountability.
So, if neither nature nor a Creator will take responsibility for human suffering based on appearance — who will?
Awareness Is Not Action
Let us not pretend this is a new conversation. The previous generations were not dumb. They knew racism was wrong. They knew beauty standards were biased. They wrote laws. Gave speeches. Started revolutions.
But here we are. Still haunted by the same metrics of worth.
Because even after awareness, most people:
- Didn’t confront their internal biases.
- Didn’t dismantle the invisible systems that reward one kind of body and punish another.
We did not fix anything. We just polished the language.
Why are Aliens in our movies all the same?
This may sound strange, but it’s revealing:
In sci-fi genre movies, aliens are often shown as uniform with same height, skin, structure, even tone of voice. Why?
Is it because deep down, do we imagine that an evolved species must have transcended variation or at least, the urge to weaponize it?
In other words:
Our fantasy of the future is a fantasy without racism. Without the emotional cost of physical difference. Without the trauma of being “othered.”
We imagine that evolution would eliminate not just illness or conflict — but the violence of hierarchy based on appearance.
How Long Will This Continue?
Hard truth?
- As long as being tall, fair, symmetrical, thin, or muscular is rewarded…
- As long as colonial or media-driven standards persist…
- As long as privilege is inherited and guarded with silence…
Racism and appearance-based discrimination will continue.
Should we just keep saying “we must educate the next generation” as if that absolves us?
We are the current generation that knows better and that makes our silence worse.
What are we doing with that knowledge? Are we unlearning our biases? Are we confronting people in power? Or are we just adding diversity quotes to our Instagram bios and Corporate HR policies?
It is a fascinating statistic that taller people are likely to grow faster in corporate world through promotions and career advancement options!
A University of Florida study found tall people earn considerably more money throughout their lives with researchers concluding that "height matters for career success". Let this sink in.
This stems from psychological associations between height and leadership qualities like authority, competence, and dominance, even though these associations may not always be based on actual performance or abilities. It is considered one of the more subtle and unrecognized forms of workplace bias, which unfortunately has deep impact on career outcomes. That’s a digression but it all connects. Let’s return to racism
What Can Be Done?
We can’t go back and change nature. We can’t summon a creator to rewrite the rules. He prefers to respond with silence almost always. But we, the created, can refuse to play along.
We can:
- Stop rewarding superiority based on appearance.
- Challenge internalized biases in ourselves and our circles.
- Design systems in hiring, media, education that protect variation instead of punishing it.
This is not about blind equality. It’s about deep accountability.
It’s about seeing how we each are participating in a system that still makes skin tone, height, or body type a silent currency.
If we can’t change the algorithm of nature, we must strive to change the algorithm of society.
To Racists:
Variation was not a choice. 'Dirty' is a term used by those who are 'filthy' to the core inside themselves.
To Victims of Racism:
Fight back with all your might. Support each other.
Don’t wait for nature to be kinder. It won’t.
Don’t expect a God to intervene. They haven’t.
Don’t pass the problem to your children. They did not create it.
We see it now. We know the truth. And if knowing doesn’t cost us something, it’s just noise.
We live in a time where:
- People know about racism.
- People know beauty standards are unfair.
- People know privilege exists.
But many stop at knowing.
They post quotes. They say the right things. They nod in conversations. But they do not
- Challenge their own behavior.
- Speak up in rooms that reward silence.
So, stay strong and fend for yourself. The Universe is watching and change will happen for the good.
Until then, rage if you must. Stand if you can. Speak if you're safe. But never forget: you were never the problem. The system was. And now, you see it. That matters. That’s where change begins.