The Racist History of Identification by Race

It has been to the ruin of Man

In 2019, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists stated: “The belief in “races” as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past.”(American Association of Physical Anthropologists (27 March 2019). “AAPA Statement on Race and Racism”. American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Retrieved 19 June 2020.)

Any article that I read regarding how races began, shows the racist nature of the process. The practice started to justify slavery, indentured servitude, genocide, colonialism, etc.

According to racialequalitytools.org, the genesis of race was as follows:

The term white emerged as a classification of people during the 1700s in the British colonies of North America. Europeans were immigrating to “the New World” for many reasons, some seeking prosperity while many people were escaping persecution, particularly religious and ethnic conflict.

The website continues to state that race is a false classification of people that is not based on any real or accurate biological or scientific truth. In other words, the distinction we make between races has nothing to do with scientific truth.

Race is a political construction. A political construction is something created by people; that is not a natural development; is constructed or created for a political purpose.

The concept of race was created as a classification of human beings with the purpose of giving power to white people and to legitimize the dominance of white people over non-white people.

The term white was defined as anyone without a drop of African or Indian blood. The category white was created as a political construct that was used as an organizing tool to unite Europeans in order to consolidate strength, increasing their ability to maintain control and dominance over the Native Americans and African slaves.

In britannica.com in its article titled The History of the Idea of Race notes:

Race as a categorizing term referring to human beings was first used in the English language in the late 16th century. By the 18th century, race was widely used for sorting and ranking the peoples in the English colonies — Europeans who saw themselves as free people, Amerindians who had been conquered, and Africans who were being brought in as slave labour — and this usage continues today.

Classification of peoples is nothing new. Thinkers have tried to explain differences in people for time in memoriam. According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_race_concepts :

Hippocrates of Kos believed, as many thinkers throughout early history did, that factors such as geography and climate played a significant role in the physical appearance of different peoples. He writes, “the forms and dispositions of mankind correspond with the nature of the country.”

Hippocrates attributed physical and temperamental differences among different peoples to environmental factors such as climate, water sources, elevation, and terrain. He noted that temperate climates created peoples who were “sluggish” and “not apt for labor”, while extreme climates led to peoples who were “sharp”, “industrious” and “vigilant”. He also noted that peoples of “mountainous, rugged, elevated, and well-watered” countries displayed “enterprising” and “warlike” characteristics, while peoples of “level, windy, and well-watered” countries were “unmanly” and “gentle.”

In many ancient civilizations, individuals with widely varying physical appearances became full members of society by growing up within that society or by adopting that society’s cultural norms (Snowden 1983; Lewis 1990).

Classical civilizations from Rome to China tended to invest the most importance in familial or tribal affiliation rather than an individual’s physical appearance (Dikötter 1992; Goldenberg 2003). Societies still tended to equate physical characteristics, such as hair and eye color, with psychological and moral qualities, usually assigning the highest qualities to their own people and lower qualities to the “Other”, either lower classes or outsiders to their society.

For example, a historian of the 3rd century Han Dynasty in the territory of present-day China describes barbarians of blond hair and green eyes as resembling “the monkeys from which they are descended,” (Gossett, Thomas F. New Edition, Race: The History of an Idea in America)

So we see that human differences have caused discrimination or at least prejudice It seems that we as human beings find ways to lift ourselves up by putting others down.

As Humans, we have, for the most part, moved passed judging psychological or moral character by hair or eye colour, height, weight, etc.

Race is our Achilles heel and we still use it as a means to justify ill-treatment of each other.

In 1978, UNESCO stated that:

“All human beings belong to a single species.”

“All peoples of the world possess equal faculties for attaining the highest level in intellectual, technical, social, economic, cultural, and political development.”

“The differences between the achievements of the different peoples are entirely attributable to geographical, historical, political, economic, social, and cultural factors.”

“Any theory which involves the claim that racial or ethnic groups are inherently superior or inferior, thus implying that some would be entitled to dominate and eliminate others, presumed to be inferior, or which bases value judgments on racial differentiation, has no scientific foundation and is contrary to the moral and ethical principles of humanity.”

It is sad that these words had to be written down.

Someone asked me what do I think people 100 years from now will be aghast about when looking at what we’re doing now? She thought they would be disgusted that we used to eat meat.

It is my hope that they would be disgusted by the fact that we used to identify each other by the colour of our skin.

Nothing good has come of it.

Nothing at all.