Neither! ‘Race’ was a political construct. Europeans who went out to dominate all mankind about 5 centuries ago disported a coppery tinge to a whitish skin colour. They were deficient in the production of melanin.
Since about 85% of the human population on the globe was once said to be coloured, how did the Europeans miss out? It appears that, about 40,000 years ago, a blast of cosmic radiation bathed the people around the Tropic of Cancer, destroying their capacity to produce melanin.
This will explain why the East Asians, once described by the militarily-superior white people as ‘yellow,’ are more cleanly white than the northern Europeans. Are all humans now ‘coloured’?
West of East Asia are whitish people spread in a ring around the globe who are slightly tanned. The Mediterranean peoples are comparable to the Caucasians and to those further east on the same global parallels.
Some of my own extended family are very lightly tanned. While our tribal origin is Ceylon, it appears that the Dravidian peoples (including Ceylon Tamils) may have originated in the north of the Indian subcontinent. Skin colour enhances the probability of this origin.
Is there any evidence of tribes fighting one another purely on the basis of skin colour? On the contrary, it was the European colonisers who coined the concept of race, with the ‘white race’ being claimed to be genetically superior to all other ‘races.’ What puffery! On-going miscegenation (for all manner of reasons) rules; no skin can claim to be superior.
I had expected that once these former superior Europeans had returned to normality, we would all mind our own business. I was wrong! The whole colonial gang has rushed back together into Asia to re-arrange borders and rulers, as once they had as individual nations. Now, it is all overtly political, not resource-related.
‘Race’ is no more. Now, culture wars, based on who has the better god, are destroying millions of innocent civilians. Human rights, anyone?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 