So, here’s the news from Josh White’s immortal “Free and Equal Blues.”[1]

"A molecule is a molecule son, And the damn thing has no race," said the doctor to the man who asked, “Was the donor dark or fair?”

Wait a minute! If even the tiny molecule has no race, then what does have “races”?

The answers vary: a track, a contest, people in a hurry, rats in a maze (poor things), a gully, a ski slope—why, there might be a hundred things with races! But our human species, you know, Homo sapiens sapiens—our very own subspecies of the genus Homo, un-uh. We ain’t got no races!

Then, Doctor, why do we call races “races”?

Well, you may as well ask why we call the game of tennis “tennis.” Or, why do we call a guitar a “guitar”?

The answers vary. But if you poke around in the etymology of the word “race,” as used to describe groups of humans, you find that it seems to have started 500 to 800-years ago. People speaking in Italian (razza) and French (haraz) and maybe even people speaking with Norse tongues (hárr) were classifying humans according to what language they spoke and the regions where they lived—not by how they looked. There are hints that the term “race” came to differentiate people by their surface features after the term was used to identify old “race horses”! The old nags that were too old for stud-sharing were revealed by the gray hairs on their muzzles! Aha! By Jove! No wonder we think there are different races dividing our subspecies of the genus Homo! Old studs turn gray! (By the way, I’m an old stud. I am beknownst of these things.)

There is more genetic diversity between humans based on varying types of ear wax than there is between humans with different skin tones! There are no races dividing us. Most certainly our so-called differences are “not enough to keep a man in chains.”

The great Joshua Daniel White[2] was beknownst of this. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, his minister father was beaten and jailed in an insane asylum after he threw a white bill collector from their home. At six, Josh took to the streets to support his family. He managed to do it for 10-years, shoeless and in rags, singing and dancing. Then he became a recording star! His life and music influenced the great ones. He was befriended by the Roosevelts. He was the first black actor to play a movie role on equal terms with the white stars in the cast. Then the HUAC black-listed him. Yet he did abide. With the help of his wife, he got by. In 1969, Josh White died at the age of 55. Yet, his music and his legacy, they live!

From “Free and Equal Blues:”

So listen you African, Indian, Mexican, Mongolian, Tyrolean and Tartar
The doctor's right behind the magna charter
The doc's behind the new brotherhood of man
As prescribed at Gettysburg, Iwo Jima, at Bull Run, and at Guadalcanal
"Every man, every where is the same... when he got his skin off"

I loved hearing Josh White sing about the “magna charter.” He knew the score. He knew there may not be such a thing as “race.” But there sure is a liberal dose of racism stirred well into the human mixture. Josh White delivered the antidote for hate on musical notes with words hearkening of “Freedom and Justice for All!”

Image: Josh White and Mary Lou Williams, NYC, 1947 (in public domain since 2010 in accordance with wishes of William P. Gottlieb)

[1] For Lyrics: http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2127 and to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCaXW5faPc

[2] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_White