Dr. Leonard Jeffries is a former professor and department chair at City University of New York. Back in the '90s, he was eventually fired because he maintained that the reason white people act like they act is due to the way they evolved; that having come to their "humanity" in Ice Age Europe (via the Neandertals), that they are essentially "ice people"; that in cold Europe they were forced to constantly compete with each other for every scrap of food; that "individualism" was always prized rather than community or communalism.

Black people (Africans), according to Dr. Jeffries, evolved in sunny Africa where communalism and cooperation were the keys to success. He labled us "sun people." No need for rigid hierarchies and constant cut-throat competition when you could just reach up to a tree and pull down your "daily bread" or go into the forest and hunt the endless game animals available for little or no effort.

This idea is not, of course, original with Dr. Jeffries. But as far as I know, he's the only "professional" who has ever been fired for espousing it.

So, it's not that white people just won't change....they just can't. Belligerance, war, fighting, hierarchies, "rugged individualism", racism, "tribalism," and "competition" rather than cooperation are all basically built into the white psyche and soul if not their DNA.

New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is Dr. Jeffries' nephew.

Excellent essay, as usual.

Herb

Chicago