Atul's Quest (Chapter 4)

Atul's Quest

Nader Habibi

Chapter Four

An Appeal to Non-Europeans

In mid-June, only a few days after our last phone conversation, I received an envelope from Atul. In it, he had enclosed a brief note and a five-page article, which he said was his independent study proposal.

Hi Dr. H,

Since you didn’t want me to send anything by email, I decided to send my study proposal by mail. I’ll contact you after you have had a chance to read it. I have already been to the Princeton library twice, and I have found a lot of useful stuff.

Yours, Atul Divan

An Appeal to Non-Euros

My fellow non-European people of the world, What I’m about to propose in this essay might seem offensive to many of you, but I urge you to read this appeal to the end before passing any judgment.

Rather than wasting your time by a detailed and perhaps confusing introduction, I will get to the point without any further delay. Ever since the end of colonialism and imperialism, we non- euros (the Non-white people of Asian, African, Pacific and native American origin) have proved that we can compete with Euros (the white people of European origin) in scientific and techno- logical fields. The old racist theories of European superiority have all been rejected in athletic, artistic and scientific competitions. It is now clear that the poverty of nations is due to the lack of collective intelligence, which is a function of organizational culture. At an individual level, we are not less intelligent or less capable than Europeans. Yet, there is one dimension in which we suffer from a genetic inferiority, and that is physical beauty. Let’s face it. Whites are more beautiful. It is true that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. However, the standards of beauty are universal. More often than not, what is viewed as beautiful in one human community is also praised as beautiful by others. Not only whites perceive themselves as more beautiful than others, but we, the non-Europeans, also see them as more attractive.

Beauty matters, and it matters a lot. The lack of  physical beauty often  causes emotional

trauma. The lack of beauty in people who constitute one’s community is equally painful. In such a community, members of other communities are perceived as more beautiful. How frustrating it is for a young man to realize that the women of his own ethnic/racial group, with whom he can socialize and from whom he eventually chooses a marriage partner, are not as beautiful as the women of other groups, who are beyond his reach. How lucky is the person who is beautiful and has a beautiful partner! How unfortunate is he/she who is less attractive than the person who is the object of his/her desire! How unfortunate is a community of people who find themselves as a group less attractive than another people! Beauty is inherited from one’s biological parents. For those who are born in demographically stable communities, it is a gift from the communal genetic pool. Just as the relative beauty within a community matters, the absolute beauty level of a society also matters. Sure, an aboriginal woman in Australia can claim to be more beautiful than some others, but any fair- minded observer admits that aborigines of Australia are far less attractive than Europeans. It is both rational and just to call on relatively less attractive human communities to improve their physical appearance based on the ideals of their own community.

It is a fact that, in most corners of the modern world, where Western movies bring the beautiful Hollywood stars into the homes of billions of people on a daily basis, people of European origin are viewed, by members of most communities, as  the most attractive people. Enter   the

private room of any teenager in the Third World. Chances are that the walls are filled with pictures of blond women and blue-eyed men. The popular magazines in Third World countries are filled with pictures of beautiful European models. Why would the profit-hungry magazine owners print these pictures if they weren’t sure that these images were popular? An even stronger piece of evidence is the fact that endogenous TV and movie stars in the Third World usually have lighter skin than those in the population in general. So let’s face it, and let’s admit it. Whites are more beautiful. And let’s do something to close the gap.

 

 

Hear my appeal

For sake of improving your emotional, social, cultural and economic conditions, I appeal to you to invest in the physical beauty of your off- spring and reduce the beauty differential that will be a cause of suffering for future generations  as it has been for us and previous generations. Beauty is one of the most valuable bequests that you can leave for your children. This investment is more crucial for those who have closer contacts with Europeans and hence suffer more emotional stress as a result of their beauty differential. The groups that suffer most are non-European minorities who live in Western Europe, Australia and North America. Because of their relative lack of beauty, these people are rejected and marginalized by the majority European population. If it were not for their own perception of unattractiveness and physical 

Inferiority, they would not have suffered so much emotional trauma in the face of Euro-rejection. Furthermore, they have to compete with Europeans in the labor market, where, believe it or not, beauty is an important criterion for hiring and promotion. As we approach the new mil- lennium, it is time to break our silence and take corrective action. Why should our future gener- ations suffer the genetic curse of ugliness? Why should they be condemned to feel depressed and envious of Europeans? We hear each other’s envious expressions about the beauty of the white race in private and frank conversations all the time, but assume that there is nothing that we can do about it. If we have enough courage, we can do something about it. Admitting that we have a problem is 50% of the solution. We can take action as individuals, and we can work toward collective action. The solution is to produce half endogenous/half white offspring.

Nothing to be ashamed of

You might think of my proposal as shameful and humiliating. Several factors might lead to such a reaction. First, engaging in racial beautification is an admission of racial inferiority. Second, in male dominated societies, the impregnation of local women from imported sperm is extremely humiliating and totally unacceptable. In such societies a child whose father is a citizen and whose mother an alien is far better accepted than a child whose mother is a citizen but the father is an alien. A third concern is that the mixed children will be drawn toward the Western

culture and the society will loose its independent cultural identity.

In response to the first concern, I must say that, when the intention is good and what is being proposed does not harm any one, the only thing we should be ashamed of is shame itself. Individuals and nations admit to their weaknesses all the time and try to find solutions. In fact, a major cause of the military and industrial strength of Western democracies is their capacity for self-criticism, which allows them to identify their weaknesses and take corrective measures. Down in the Third World, politicians and intellectuals openly admit to their industrial and technological inferiority and ask the international community for help. No one feels ashamed of being underdeveloped. Rather than denying it, most underdeveloped nations have accepted their backwardness in recent years and have imported technological know-how and machinery to industrialize. Historically, those nations that have refused to accept new technologies and ideas from abroad, for the sake of national pride, have not improved their economic condition as much as others. In agriculture and animal husbandry, farmers continuously import genetically modified seeds and animals to improve the quality of their livestock and increase crop yield. Coming closer to our main subject, every year, millions of non-Euros, mostly women, spend billions of dollars on plastic surgery to change the shape of their nose and eyes and other facial structures in the hope of looking more European/beautiful. Do you think they should feel ashamed?

If you are not convinced that investment in long-term racial beauty is nothing to be ashamed of, then you should at least concede that it will be a one-shot humiliation affecting only one or two generations. Without beautification, every generation of an unattractive race must go through the humiliating and painful realization of its beauty deficiency. You should think of the generation/persons that invest in racial beautification as sacrificing their pride and facing the potential humiliations that might follow for the sake of the future generations. The humiliation and suffering of the beautifying generation will help future generations achieve higher levels of relative beauty and suffer less in the future.

Turning to the second criticism, it is a well- known fact that most non-European societies and cultures are patriarchal and, because of their masculine bias, are extremely sensitive about parental bloodline. The prevalence of masculine bias is unfortunate. Such a bias leads to the rejection of the least costly method of whitening - namely the importation of white sperm. Biracial children whose white gene comes from a paternal line (imported white sperm) will face more rejection and harassment than others. This attitude, however, will be subject to change through education and public debate. The alternative of importing white female eggs or employing white surrogate mothers will be far less humiliating in masculine societies. This latter method is more practical for affluent male non-Euros who undertake the whitening process at an individual level.

Finally, I’m not convinced that mixed children will necessarily abandon their culture because of their half-native blood. Cultural identity is acquired from the environment and, since the social environment of these children will not be any different than that of purely endogenous children, they will not have any higher tendency towards Western culture. It is unlikely that these children will experience mistreatment and alienation. On the contrary, mixed persons of endogenous/European marriage are usually very popular in developing countries. (In India, many of them are recruited into the movie industry or politics and achieve stardom.) Because of their popularity and warm acceptance, they remain loyal to the domestic culture and contribute to its preservation and betterment.

Racial Beautification has many benefits

The benefits of racial beautification outweigh its costs, even when the cost of humiliation is high. The direct benefit of beautification is obvious because of the intrinsic value of human beauty. At the individual level, beauty leads to higher rates of social acceptance and popularity. As a result, the individual will enjoy more self- esteem and will be more successful in his career. Various recent studies have shown that more beautiful people face better opportunities in the labor market. However, racial beautification could have many indirect benefits as well. In the long run, culture is the most important determinant of development. An unattractive people will suffer from low self-esteem as a group.    Just

as an individual who lacks self-esteem cannot realize his full potential, a society that is low on self-esteem will find it more difficult to grow. As mentioned earlier, widespread low self-esteem leads to prevalent feelings of anger and resentment towards other members of the group. These negative feelings will arise not only because of the intrinsic feelings of inferiority but also because of the insecurity that each member of the society feels when coming into contact with more attractive races. Therefore, even marginal improvement in the average level of beauty will help reduce the feelings of anger and self-hatred in a society.

The relative position of a racial/ethnic group in the international community matters. As a nation or race becomes more beautiful, its relative position improves, and the rest of the world will show more goodwill towards it. More tourists will visit the country, and their attitude towards the endogenous people will be more cordial. The community and its members will receive more support from others, and, hence, each member of the community can achieve its goals at a lower cost.

If you are dreaming of migration to the West, the lighter the skin color of your children, the higher their chances of entry and success. I assure you: there are millions of couples in China, India, Pakistan and elsewhere who share this dream. For some, this dream begins in early adulthood as they learn more about the security and pleasures of living in the West. Others inherit it from their parents, who have no higher wish for their children than to see them migrate to the

West. For anyone whose heart is burning with the migration quest, whitening is a valuable in- vestment. It is as important as scientific knowledge and intelligence. It takes hard work and talent for a foreign student to get a graduate degree in the U.S. But once a young, foreign- born graduate starts searching for a job, his/her degree of whiteness plays an important role in his success. Needless to say, the quality of life of an immigrant and his acceptance in white social circles will also depend on his skin color.

Racial Beautification is Practical

The difficulty of achieving racial beautification varies from group to group, but it is practical under all circumstances. Racial beautification could be achieved through collective action or individual initiative. At the individual level, it is most practical and least costly for non- Europeans living in the West. All it takes is a man or woman with a strong desire. Main options for men are: a) Marrying a white woman (or at least a member of a lighter-skinned minority). The drawback to this option is the limited number of white women who might be willing to marry non- whites. b) Employing a white woman as a surrogate mother. C) With the recent advancements in reproductive science and technology, it is even possible for a couple to buy an egg from a white female, fertilize it with husband’s sperm and plant it in wife’s womb. This way both husband and wife have a claim to being the natural parents of the offspring.

The options for women are even less costly: a) Marrying a white man. (Again it might be difficult for less attractive non-European women to find a willing and interested partner), b) Becoming pregnant from a white man (same difficulty with regard to finding a suitable  partner),

c) Artificial insemination after obtaining suitable sperm from a sperm bank or other sources.

In a non-European society, individual initiative towards whitening is very difficult. Rich people could go abroad to obtain white sperm or white eggs. But for others, it might be a big problem. Besides, it might result in a very negative social reaction. In these countries, collective action is more practical. The government or some non-governmental organization should take the lead if there is significant support for such a policy. There is a high possibility that, with future advancements in genetic engineering, a couple could alter the physical attributes of their offspring. They could choose the skin color, eye color and the facial features of each child. Once such techniques become available and af- fordable to non-Europeans, beautification will be more popular, because it will no longer involve sperm or egg importation from an alien gene pool.

Final Comments

I sincerely hope that my appeal has left a lasting impression on you. As a non-Euro, I am one of you, and I share your historical experience. In response to the European expansionism that began five centuries ago,   our

various communities have put up a strong resistance. The age of colonialism is over, and non-Europeans living in Western countries have successfully fought against many types of racism and prejudice. Many non-European countries such as Korea, Malaysia and China have overcome their economic backwardness and are rapidly catching up to the West. Even more importantly, the Japanese have achieved parity with the West on technological and scientific performance.

We have many reasons to be proud and to look to the future with hope and optimism. Yet, now that we no longer view the white people of European origin as oppressors, now that we have demonstrated that we are not inferior to them in any performance criteria, the time has come to bring to the surface our deep sense of admiration for the beauty of the Western European race. The time has come to admit that beauty plays a major role in our happiness. Just as we invest in the health and education of our society, we must also invest in improving the physical beauty of our people and reduce the existing beauty gap between the Europeans and ourselves. As we enter the 21st century and face the images of Europeans through travel and the Internet and other advanced technologies in the waiting, the time has come to put aside our shame and our silence and exchange views on how best we can reduce this beauty differential.  The methods that I have proposed to you for racial whitening and beautification might not be the best methods available. If we initiate dialogue and investigate this issue openly, perhaps more practical    and

more efficient methods will be discovered. So let’s face it. Whites are more beautiful. However, if we take corrective action now, there is hope for our future generations.

*  *  *

After reading Atul’s proposal (which I will refer to as the Appeal from here on), my first reaction was a sense of relief that he did not send it by email or fax. It would have been a huge embarrassment (not to mention trouble) if anyone had seen this article and associated it with me in any way. I could not imagine any minority or anyone from the Third World seeing this article and not being offended by it. At least Atul had enough sense to admit at the beginning that most people would find his suggestion offensive and shameful. Why did Atul send me this piece? I had asked him for an independent study proposal. Did he misunderstand my request and think that I wanted him to put his ideas about whitening and racial beautification in a propaganda-style essay?

One thing that was clear from his writing was that Atul was a lot more religious about his racial beautification dream than I had initially expected. The content also raised a question in my mind about the character and personality of Atul. What kind of life experiences would drive a 21 year-old student of Indian origin to such a state of mind? He obviously did not feel any racial or ethnic pride. To the contrary, if the Appeal reflects his personal values, Atul must be full of self-hatred. On one hand, I felt more curious about this study and about Atul himself. But, at the same time, I felt worried about the consequences of anyone finding out what Atul was investigating. What if    people

thought that I approved of Atul’s idea? How will the department react or, perhaps, be compelled to react, if a minority group got a hold of the Appeal and took it seriously? At the very least, I would lose my job.

I was torn between these two concerns, and I could not decide what to do. I heard a voice from my subconscious: when in doubt, read it again. So I started reading the Appeal one more time. Half way through the second page, my eyes suddenly froze on the word “development,” and I suddenly remembered my own secret agenda: Beauty and Development. In a flash, my inner conflict was resolved. Of course I wanted Atul to continue his independent study project. For a few seconds, my eyes were fixed on that magical word. Then I read the sentence that surrounded ‘development’ and began to realize that some of Atul’s ideas and concepts were relevant for my research. Since  I had not read the appeal with this quest in mind, I went to the beginning and reviewed it again with a clear search agenda.

While Atul’s prescription for whitening was not of much use, he had made some remarks about the emotional and behavioral consequences of a relative beauty differential that I found interesting. If the lack of beauty causes a negative self-image at the group level, then it could have an adverse effect on social norms and culture, which itself plays an important role in development. It was a crude idea, but it was well worth investigating. I found a second interesting idea in the Appeal. A more attractive ethnic group, according to Atul, enjoyed more popularity and international goodwill. If there was any way to construct a comparative beauty index for various ethnic groups, then perhaps this hypothesis could be roughly tested. One could try to  see  if  there is  a  connection between the

level of international assistance that a nation receives and the average beauty score of that country’s residents. Of course one has to control for other factors that affect international assistance. I could also consider how the relative beauty of a people could affect the growth of tourism and the entertainment industry. If beauty were a determinant of travel destinations, then tourism would flourish in societies with more beautiful people. Finally, it occurred to me that perhaps international traders and investors prefer to invest in communities that are more beautiful. By combining these thoughts, I was able to develop a primitive flowchart of how physical beauty could affect a country’s development.

Two days later, I got a call from Atul. He was wondering if I had received his proposal.

“Yes. And I have also read it.”

”I hope you are satisfied with it. I tried to explain what I had in mind as clearly as possible,’’ said Atul with an excited voice.

“Atul, I think there must have been some misunderstanding. I’m sure you have written research papers in some of your classes by now. A proposal for an independent study program is a clear plan for studying a specific topic. What you have written is similar to a 19th century political pamphlet. It is anything but a proposal for an independent study,’’ I replied with a critical tone. I was waiting for a response from Atul, but the line was silent. “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Yes,” he said with a low voice. There was silence again. Perhaps my comment was too harsh. I knew I had to carry the conversation. “Look Atul, the purpose of an independent study project is to help a student learn more about a topic that he is interested in. It starts by asking the right questions about the subject and then

reading the right books and articles to learn the answers. Your proposal sounds like you already  have all the answers. I have given some thought to your so- called “whitening” proposal. I don’t agree with your recommendation, but if you are so serious about this idea, then we should arrange your independent study in a way that will let you increase your knowledge about the practicality and consequences of such an idea. Based on what you have written in this proposal, I have come up with several questions that I think you should concentrate on. However, I can only work with you if you avoid slogans and appeals and concentrate on searching for the answers to these questions without any prejudice. Is that acceptable to you?”

“Yes. I accept your conditions 100 percent. I have already done some literature search and found several articles. As soon as you give me the questions, I will concentrate my work entirely on them. For a moment, I thought you were going to cancel the whole thing. Please let me have the questions, and I’ll start working on them right away.”

I had already thought out several questions, but I decided to send them by mail rather than mentioning them over the phone. This way, Atul did not have any excuse to ignore any of them.