It seems that Trump’s racism has not been flushed down the pot.
Insulting the Obamas shows what Trump has always thought. (1)
Miss Leavitt has defended him and flaunts her Christian cross.
Mike Johnson has said nothing…thus agreeing with his boss?

Comparing blacks to apes is a long-standing, racist trope.
To see it gone entirely would seem a futile hope.
There’s something evil in the brains that hold this sentiment,
Especially when the chief evangelist leads government.

We “naked apes” evolved a hundred thousand years ago. (2)
And then, some restless ancestors thought they would like to go
Up north and out of Africa, where sunlight’s not so bright,
And skins started to lighten to let in such dim sunlight.

To synthesize D vitamins, skins must let sunlight in. (3)
Which means that skin melanocytes must make less melanin.
D vitamins are necessary for strong teeth and bones.
So skins got lighter in the migrants to Earth’s northern zones. (4)

We all came out of Africa, where Homo first arose,
And skin shades started varying, as evolution shows.
Skin cancer is a problem where the sun’s rays are intense.
Retaining melanin’s protection there makes lots of sense.

Another wrinkle in our northern migrant history:
We bred with the Neanderthals; they’re in our family tree. (5)
And some retain more of their genes than others of us do.
Do our white racists come from such a toxic residue?

We know East Africa evolved our species, Homo (man.)
Our species, Homo, shares ancestors with chimpanzees (Pan.) (6)
Light, dark, cafe au lait are human skin varieties,
Just as tall, short, and fat or thin, all human qualities.

We all share genes with chimpanzees, (some ninety eight per cent,)
The same for every one of us: genes trace Homo’s descent.
All humans now are ninety nine point nine percent the same,
So racist jokes show ignorance of whence our species came.

(1)In a post on Feb. 5, Trump showed the Obamas as apes bowing down
to him as the Lion King.
(2)This is a very interesting story, anchored by evidence of when body lice
evolved. Body lice live in clothes. Head and pubic lice live on the body.
(3)UV irradiation catalyzes an important step in Vitamin D synthesis. Most
Europeans have the same disabling mutation in one gene in this pathway.
Asians have two different mutations that also inhibit melanin synthesis.
Both Europeans and Asians are lighter than Africans.
(4)It’s all due to migrating up north, away from the equator.

(5)The evidence for this is clear, first taking place about 50,000 years ago,
probably in the Middle East, where “Cro Magnon” migrants from East Africa
probably first encountered Neanderthals. We think that the Neanderthals
evolved from Homo erectus, who first came up out of Africa about two
million years ago. The average European today has about 2-4% Neanderthal
genes. Most Africans today have none. Are whites more like Neanderthals?
(6)Pan is the species name for chimpanzees, just as Homo is the species
name for us. “Sapiens” (wise) might be a rather egotistical assumption (and
perhaps unmerited in some of us.)