I'm evolving as we speak, darling!

The New Scientist, a magazine I'm not too familiar with, has recently published an blurb regarding studies of the human brain indicating its ongoing evolution. Both studies were concerned with genes which regulate brain size. Each has a specific mutation present in only part of the human population. For one, the mutation is present in approximately 70% of the global population, for the other the mutation exists in about 25% of us. The more widespread mutation is present primarily in the European, North American and Middle Eastern populations, being less prevalent in the Sub-Saharan African population. The less common mutation is mostly found in the European and Middle Eastern populations. New Scientist states outright that there is no indication that these genes effect brain function.

The thing is I'm concerned with how some people will deal with this information. Outright racists will actively seize on this as "scientific support" for their prejudice. Then again, they really don't need reason to fuel their hate. Still, you know this world is filled with people who aren't actively racist, but will nevertheless not be satisfied with people being simply different. For them, one person being different from another means that one person is better than another. Also, we all have the capacity to be lazy thinkers on certain topics, especially the more complicated and the less relevant we think they are to us. Neurological development is clearly one of those things that most people aren't going to spend a lot of time on. Plenty of people will hear that these mutations are more common in people of European background than Africans, and in the hazy recesses of their minds they will make the vague connection that these genes explain European cultural dominance.

Perhaps I'm just being pessimistic about human nature. Perhaps there will be no bad reaction. Perhaps people really are evolving to the point where we can accept that we're just not all the same. And so what?