How Did Race Become Popular
How Did a Term Without Scientific Meaning Get to Be Influential
Jun 11, 2008
Defining Race
Until the word “race” came into existence, people defined themselves by ethnicity. A French writer named Buffon introduced the word into the science community in 1749 when he used it to denote physical differences among groups (Bradley 32). However, there is no scientific meaning to the word “race.” All people belong to the same species of humans – Homo sapiens sapiens.
Racism as a Consequence of Slavery
Race is the base word of racism. The term got popular sometime around the eighteenth century. Some Western theologians and writers clarified its meaning when they offered unsavory and inadequate explanations for African enslavement.
Shift in Slave Labor
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the ethnic composition of America’s slave labor began to change from primarily European (indentured servants) to predominantly African. This shift occurred because planters learned from experience that it was less expensive to have an African laborer for life than it was to have a contracted slave from Europe for ten or fifteen years (Williams 7).
Theologians Interpreted The Curse of Ham
According to Genesis 9:20 – 26, when Noah’s son, Ham, saw his father sleeping naked he did not cover him. However, Ham’s brothers, Shem and Japheth, covered their father while he was sleeping without looking at him. When Noah awakened, he cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, to slavery for his father’s failure to cover him up, but he blessed Shem and Japheth for their efforts.
Although there is no reference to skin color in the story, many Western theologians interpreted it by assigning themselves as the descendents of Japheth while assigning Africans as the descendents of Ham (Guthrie 4, 5). These theologians declared that Noah had cursed Ham and his descendents into slavery to serve the descendents of his brothers.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe added to the development of racism. He wrote The Gold Bug for children. In one passage he describes a slave who is foolishly talking to his master: “’Oh my golly, Massa Will: Ain’t dis here my lef’ eye for sartin?’ Roared the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his right organ of vision” (qtd in Klein 5). Poe’s point is that the slave was so stupid that he did not know his right eye from his left.
Racism Spreads
Even John Locke, the great political theorist who influenced the writers of the American Constitution, said that Africans were just a little smarter than apes (Bernal 203). The general explanation for African enslavement was “Europeans argued that in taking Africans out of their native continent, they were ‘rescuing’ them from a ‘primitive’ and ‘barbaric’ existence” (Shillington 180).
Through many of the questionable writings of some Western intellectuals, the idea of African inferiority spread quickly and racism became an integral part of European and American society. Western intellectuals created the term "race" and racism. It is now part of the color-conscious “New World,” even though, technically, there is no such thing as race.
Sources::
Bernal, Martin. Black Athena, Volume I. New Brunswick, New Jersey:
Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Bradley, Michael. The Iceman Inheritance. New York, NY: Kayode
Publications LTD., 1978.
Guthrie, Robert V. Even the Rat Was White – A Historical View
Of Psychology. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
Klein, Gillian. Reading into Racism: Bias in Children’s Literature and
Learning Materials. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985.
Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1995.
Williams, Eric. Capitalism & Slavery. New York: Perigee Books, 1994.
