The History of Race and Racism, Essay Example

What is the HISTORY behind ‘race’?

The term race has been defined by many scholars differently although it does not have one distinct clear meaning. Race can be referred to as a classification system that is used to group humans into distinct groups by genetic physical appearance, phenotypic characteristics, geographical origin and ethnicity. Race can be traced back many years to the time great scientists like Charles Darwin and Mendel existed. Charles Darwin provided that man originated by evolution from less complex organism to complex organism. According to Darwin, during evolution so many changes occurred which differentiated one organism from the other. Darwin then formulated the theory of natural selection which has been used by scholars to explain the origin of race. According to this theory, Darwin denotes that organisms which tend to posses the same characteristics isolate themselves from those with different characteristics to stay together. Darwinian Theory of natural selection was unable to be understood because of lack of biological evidence of inheritance of genes. Lamarck and Darwin supported notion of blending inheritance where they postulated that heritable materials from the parents blended together in the offspring. This notion was problematic until Mendel discovered that two genes alleles are not blended in the offspring but one from each parent determines the phenotype. The phenotype is produced by the dominant allele, not the recessive one. Alleles are inherited and expressed separately. although science suses the concept of race to groups different organism, the concept lacks application to humans because humans live in wide environments which they travel back and forth meaning that there is a high gene flow among humans groups making it hard to classify them into discreet groups. Although evolution theories try to ex[plan the origin of race, much is still hidden on where human race begins and ends. Scientifically, so many generic differences exist within the so called races than between the races themselves.

What created this rhetoric of racial inequality?

Racial inequality arose from the notion that, race has connections to human intelligence that resulted into ethnocentric dislikes and distrust of others. This is an ancient approach to racial inequality however, the modern idea about racial inequality lies on the kind of group prejudice that is based on culture, religion, or a sense of family or kinship. Moreover, racial inequality arises when ethnocultural differences among human are regarded as innate, indelible and unchangeable. Skin color among other human differences is grouped as the first trait people of the west use to place people into racial groups. Other features like hair, face-shape, cultural backgrounds which human beings have no power over are used to classify people into groups.

What is racist, and where did racism come from?

A racist is a person who believes that a certain race, color or nationality is inferior to themselves or their race color or nationality. When a person acts like this, he/she is practicing racist or they would be a racist. Racist actions can also be called racism. Racism has existed for quite a long time but it was popularized by slave trade in earlier 20^th century between Africa and western countries. Africans were seen as mere objects of property and less human. For instance, in the American south, segregation laws and restrictions on the black voting rights lowered African Americans into a lower caste status although the constitutional amendments made all citizens equal. Briefly, racism can be attributed to prejudice of certain groups over others on the lines of color, culture and nationality.

Works cited

George fredrickson. “Racism”: A short history. Prentice Hall University presses. 2003.