There is only one race — the human race — and although it manifests extraordinary diversity in its cultural expressions, its commonalities are what make us one species. The brain’s basal ganglia and amygdalae; the limbic brain; and the neocortex all play their roles. I would say that the universal problems of lust for power; territoriality; homophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny; our “Us” versus “Them” attitude, in short, are the reflection of the dominance of our reptilian brain in human affairs. What makes us human is our warm, nurturing limbic brain; what gives us a chance to surmount our problems is our neocortex, which allows forethought, organization, abstract thinking, and planning.

What you posited is an amalgam of “enlightened” and thought-provoking questions with certain fundamental assumptions about “power” and “race.” On that note, one of your readers quite correctly pointed out that socioeconomic status is far more determinative of life outcomes than one’s ethnicity. Money determines education, likelihood of having a two-parent home, intellectual freedom and development, good health, a chance to live a meaningful life with significant choices available to you, versus the lack of these things in the absence of money.

We spend way too much time and emotional energy in thinking about race, and use racism as a means of explaining the existing socioeconomic and sociopolitical structures, rather than looking at the economic impacts that certain decisions have on the increasing levels of poverty, poor health, and other social ills from which we suffer.

In short, asking people to change their “race” (ethnicity), based on the false premise that power and ethnicity are directly correlated, creates an equivalency that does not necessarily exist across the board.