I am here today to take you on a journey. This journey will involve hiking up the mountain of enlightenment. At the beginning of this journey, you will see that the earth is not flat, it is round. Half way up the mountain, you will see that the earth is not only round, but you will also see that the earth is not the center of the universe. Hence our planet orbits our star along with the rest of the planets in our solar system. You will also learn that our star orbits our Milky Way galaxy and that our galaxy is but one of the billions and billions of galaxies in our cosmos. But when we get to the top, you will learn and see something that is more elegant, subtle, provocative and spectacular than the other enlightening ideas combined.

 

You will be situated to something that most people in our culture, and the world in general, do not yet realize. I want you to see this from the top of the mountain of enlightenment and through the lens of how our ancestors looked and lived 100 thousand years ago in Africa before the first great migration out of our ancestral homeland. Do you see it? Do you see what I see? There is no race. There is only the realization that we are all the descendants of those people you see from the top of our mountain of enlightenment. We are all brothers and sisters, and those people we see out there, they’re our mothers and fathers.

 

From the top of our mountain of enlightenment, we are not hindered by space and time. We can see everything from our ancestors of 100 thousand years ago through the great American slave trade to the genocide of a Native American people to today. Yes, we can see it all. We can see the totality of human history right before our eyes. As a result, this capability will prove powerful as we examine the recent past and today.

 

It is fair to say that this illuminated and biological fact – that there is no biological race and race is just a cultural and political construct – has not yet taken hold in our highly racialized society, and it may not for some time. The reason for this is that we have all been complicit in biological ignorance, thus our cultural lens is our kryptonite. We did not have the advantage of seeing the world from the top of the mountain of enlightenment. But, we are on top of the mountain now.

 

From our vantage point, we cannot only see our ancestors from 100 thousand years ago, but we can also see two scenes taking place just above them. On the left, we can see Richard Lewontin, evolutionary geneticist and his research throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. He, along with other scientists, accumulated scientific evidence over those three decades that would eventually shed light on our biological connection and past. What they found was so profound that it rivaled the beauty and elegance of our place in the cosmos. All you need to do to see this beauty and elegance is to appreciate the scene from 100 thousand years ago.

 

Simultaneously, and on the right, we can see the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s and how the police used violence to attempt to subvert and overthrow a peaceful movement of equality. We can see how our brothers and sisters marched with a man of peace for the purpose of human equality and humility. We can see how this man, our brother of the “I have a dream” legacy was gunned down on a Memphis evening in April 1968, because of his belief in nonviolence, serenity, and the unification of the American people. Remember, we can see everything from the mountain of enlightenment; we can see America’s brightest moments and we can see America’s darkest past.

 

We can see that every single person that lives on this planet is not of the same race but rather is of the same family. In other words, if you are from a small town in rural Iowa, those who live in a small town in sub-Saharan Africa are your biological brothers and sisters. If you are from the big city of Chicago, those who live in Mexico City, Mexico are your biological brothers and sisters. You are not just related to those people in your family at home, you are related to that student from China. You are related to that student from Nigeria; you are related to that student from Malaysia. The reason you know this is because when you stand on the mountain of enlightenment, you see that the ancestors of the Chinese student, the Nigerian student, and the Malaysian student are your ancestors as well. Those people we see below are our mothers and fathers and we are their grandchildren. With that said, it’s a beautiful view from up here, isn’t it?