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A post shared by Julia (@julika.illustration) on Jun 6, 2020 at 11:32am PDT

What is the future of the human race?

It seems that we are hurtling toward an evermore undesirable tomorrow. However, there is much to be hopeful about too.

As the decades pass, humans are becoming more connected and interdependent. According to the Pew Research Center, soon we will become part of one multi-race. Studies suggest, this trend will make the human race smarter, as it has happened once before—tripling the size of the average human brain.

But first, let’s look at some of the population statistics:

The white share of the United States population has been dropping, from a little under 90 percent in 1950 to 60 percent in 2018. It is projected to drop below 50 percent in another 25 years—making minorities our majority.

Today, less than half of the children in the U.S. are white; making children of color the new and permanent majority.

The Pew Research Center reports that Black and Brown people make up 40 percent of the U.S. population: that percentage is rapidly growing. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of racial and ethnic minorities increased by about 1,271,000 people; while the white population declined by 257,000.

In 2018, the average age of all racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. was 27, and the average age for whites was 58. Multiracial marriages quadrupled from 1980 to 2013, and multiracial birth rates have risen tenfold since 1970.  Minorities accounted for 92 percent of the U.S. population growth between 2010 and 2018, with Latinos comprising about half of the nation’s overall growth.

The problem of race has plagued humans for thousands of years. As the U.S. population becomes less and less white, being born of multiple races has become the norm. Today, most Americans get it—with 77 percent believing this trend is a good thing for the country.

The Social Intelligence Theory

In 1976, Nicholas Humphrey proposed that social dynamics were the main driver of intelligence. Instead of climate change, physical environment, or cooking, it was theorized that group living and social structures drove higher intelligence and larger brains. Small clans that became tribes, and eventually small communities, caused brain sizes to triple.

More recently, a study on bird intelligence was performed; they studied 56 magpies in groups of three to twelve. Researchers designed wooden and plastic boxes that required varying degrees of intelligence to open. They found that the larger the size of the group, the more intelligent they were—suggesting that intelligence is linked to living in larger groups.

Humans have evolved from small family groups into larger clans, then tribes. This suggests that the discovery of fire, hunting skills, meat consumption, fishing, and cooking may not have been the driver of our growing intelligence; rather, the slow and steady growth of clan size and complicated social structures resulted in our remarkable intelligence and larger brains.

So, Why Can’t We Get Along?

Living communally depends on the members of the tribe living for, and depending on, one another.

Today, our tribes take the form of races, ethnicities, clubs, religions, and political affiliations. Within the tribe, everyone is safe. Tribes work because every member—from children to elders—have an important role to play. These roles weave a social web that provoke creativity, intelligence, and—as we now know—larger brains.

Within the walls of your tribe, you are safe and accepted. When we venture out of our tribe, we find ourselves judging the other or trying to convert folks from one club or religion to another.

It is time to realize that on this relatively small planet flying through the universe, we are all one tribe. We have the right to feel safe as a member of this human tribe; each of us lives for and depends on one another—every one of us has an important role to play for the good of the tribe, as a whole.

Instead of looking for reasons to convert, judge, or attack the beliefs of one clan, race, political party, or religion, it’s time to accept each clan as a part of a much greater tribe—planet earth; human multi-race.

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