 A Legacy of Mutants By Dashiell N. Wakeman

Introduction  For centuries, mankind has explored and pondered the vast potential of the future, as well as the conditions and ideas of the past. The struggle of every civilization in history has been to implement and support ideas, actions, and philosophies greater than those who came before, in an effort to make a lasting positive impression into the future. While we may perpetually condemn specific actions of past generations, we cannot help but realize our own imperfections and the concepts and actions that the world of the future will look at with disdain.

How to Be Remembered  As the individual and specific details of our culture fade with time, former president of Harvard University Lawrence Summers posits that what will remain in the memories of future generations will be the fundamental ideas and philosophies that influenced people, actions, and protests. Looking at our world from the perspective of a theoretical distant future allows us to stand back and look at issues through an objective lens. With a specific focus on American history, we can discuss the progression of society as one that has grappled with prejudice and the acknowledgment of difference, which we still deal with to this day.

Sources of the Problem  The thought of a world in which there is no hatred based on fear and difference is an ideal that we can strive for, but we are still nowhere near becoming the society that we desire. These mutations that lead to visible difference and prejudice are impacted and influenced by the genetic and physical factors, the historical factors, and the societal and environmental factors. In order to combat the hate in our world and build a better society for the future, the first step is widespread understanding and acceptance of the root causes of these issues.

Genetics  To begin a discussion on prejudice, one must first explore how humans view and interpret physical difference. Our understanding of genes and their functions has been comparatively vast for a long time, but in considering the speed at which we gain new knowledge on the subject, one can only wonder what the future will hold in regards to scientific discovery. In past stages of history, it can be believed that a majority of prejudice stemmed from fear, and fear from ignorance. As we moved into the modern era, increased knowledge in regards to what creates physical and visible difference improved relations between races, ethnicities, and genders, but is still far from solving the problems as hand. Where we are currently in our understanding of human genetic variation and control over genes explains the social divide in societies based on difference, but as more information is learned, and more widespread understanding is implemented, we can slowly move away from the institutionalized fear and hate dictated by no more than a few proteins in our DNA.

History  In Philip Perlmutter’s book, Legacy of Hate, he documents the United States of America historically as a white-centric society build on the backs of the oppressed and stigmatized, and posits that the progression between colonization and present-day all holds the same amount of prejudice, only shifted to fit the mold of the world that was forming. Bigotry has diminished, in fact, due to the improvements in education over the past centuries, but the prejudice that fueled ideas like slavery and segregation is the same that in the modern age fuels police brutality and race riots, leading to movements that will speak volumes to the future of our society.

Conclusion  If we progress past this point, our children and grandchildren will look at our civilization as one that consisted of the bigoted, hate-speech that divides people based on genetic factors, and of the soldiers for peace and equality. Whichever side is remembered in the future will be those who prevail in sculpting the world that survives and thrives into the future. While I pray that someday similarities outweigh differences, there are still fundamentalist ideals based on difference that reign in modern time. However, there is hope that these differences will someday be seen and acknowledged as what they truly are: genetic mutation. The future is filled with the same spirit of thinkers and innovators that pushed for change in past generations, and if that spirit pushes society towards better ideas and philosophies than those who came before, then regardless of how our generation is viewed, that future will be bright.