What an awesome article. Loved it. I had no idea about the licking of slaves to select on salt retention. Such a niche part of history. Race, like many other things in the modern discourse are presented as a binary choice, but the reality (as you've pointed out) is much more complex. And I say that as a self identified penguin refusing to play into the narrative of identity politics.

The intuitive part of how we think isn't widely unstood and easily hacked by people with a vested interest in getting you on side. I'm in the middle of 'Thinking Fast and Slow' which I highly recommend if you haven't read it. That intuitive thinking creates 'othering'. This means even if we were all the same colour, we'd have racism based on shade. If we were all the same shade, we'd have 'othering' based on something else, height or weight or something similar. Our brains cant help but categorise into 'us and them'. It takes quite a lot of cognitive energy to avoid thinking like this - something your Indian primary school teachers have failed to do. That happens regardless of your skin colour, your genitals or your political persuassion.

Consider yourself followed and consider me a fan. Great work. :o)