Kenya | I Am The Future
This month is Black History Month, and in celebration of black history, I did this portrait is of a young man named Kenya.
Most would identify Kenya as a black male, but genetically speaking Kenya has ancestry from all three major races (Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid). However, is Kenya perceived as Caucasion? No… Mongoloid? Nope… From the perspective of most people, he would be perceived as Negroid. Now why do most people only recognize that race over the others, and judge him solely by what they first see?
Did you know that, according to an article in National Geographic, “Neither race nor ethnicity is actually detectable in the human genome? Humans do have genetic variations, some of which were once associated with ancestry from different parts of the world. But those variations cannot be tracked to distinct biological categories.
Humans share over 99 percent of their genetic material with one another, and variation occurs more between individuals than ethnic groups.” We are the HUMAN RACE after all, and we all have more in common than not.
So we should be celebrating all of our respective histories all of our racial and ethic diversity, as well as those things we all share in common. Each of us is the sum of our parts, not only our genetic makeup, but our history, our loves, our failures, our dreams, so much more than our skin pigment that we had no control over.
Kenya is a student of history, as well as science, and he recognizes the value of knowing both, and moreover what each can teach us. If we unite as one race who knows what is possible? Kenya is the future, a mix of many races, and we should embrace what makes us human.