WHEN YOU READ, DON'T JUST ***SEE***, ***OBSERVE*** | 2002-04-20
We all remember what Sherlock Holmes used tell his dumb-but-loyal assistant and biographer
"You SEE, Watson, but you do not OBSERVE."
Let us OBSERVE what this sentence that millions have SEEN tells us
"IN CASE THIS QUESTION IMMEDIATELY MAKES YOU SHUDDER AT THE THOUGHT THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ A RACIST TREATISE, YOU SHOULDN'T."
This wonderful sentence tells an OBSERVER another fundamental truth about our age. And it needs stating clearly because it is an important OBSERVATION
Despite the fact that thousands of books are written and given awards to prove that the historical importance of skin color is an accident, absolutely nobody believes it.
Nobody really believes that race does not exist or that that the inherited characteristics of race are not important. What the author is here admitting up front is that any serious discussion of why some continents are part of history and others are not would be a racist book.