Dark Skin and Patches of Land

A reflection paper on the Docuumentary Film entitled "The Real Eve" tackling the issue of racial equality using bothe sociological and anthropological perspectives

 

Dark Skin and Patches of Land

 

            Through the study of history, we know that even during the Age of Encounters or more commonly known as the Age of Discovery, humanity was already fascinated with its origin. Therefore, it was expected that as new technologies are discovered, it is inevitable that man will do everything to get the answers that he is looking for.

            The film The Real Eve is a documentary about man’s Last Common Ancestor, the mitochondrial mother with whom we trace our roots from. The film showed a shocking and a somewhat controversial discovery; the one that they call the real Eve is a woman from Africa millions of years ago.

            Through the course of history, it was quite inevitable that there are some instances where in the Failure of Humanity becomes visible. One such human failure is the still prevalent racism in the society. May it be with Hitler’s awful genocidal acts against the Jews or with the present day discrimination of the Blacks by the Whites, racial supremacy has always been an issue that plagues our world. One can assume that these tendencies of racism come from an innate belief by some of their superiority over others that they deem inferior. The thing is, since time immemorial, perhaps the people that has always been given the most bitter of fate were the Africans. When the Europeans started with their expeditions to discover the rest of the world, they immediately assigned the roles of the slaves to these Africans. Indeed, until now, amidst the poverty and famine that these people suffer, they also have to contend with degrading insults about the color of their skins.

            However, with the shocking revelations that The Real Eve brings, these bigots are forced to take heed of the fact that without the perseverance that these supposedly inferior creatures showed millions of years ago, it is quite possible that none of the world that we know of today would exist. If these people did not brave the unknown then perhaps until now, the people of the world would still be stuck in that continent that some view with contempt. Worse still, it is quite probable that had it not been for these Africans’ bravery then perhaps humanity might not have survived extinction instead of the overpopulation that it is facing today. As such, these questions of what-ifs and what-might-have-been do not really matter. What matters is that the people of the world must be informed that we are all braches of the same root. More than that still, we must then understand that these discoveries only solidify the truth that we have known all along but still chose to ignore; that we are all brothers and sisters and as such, everybody should be treated equally and without any contempt.