Sorry, but I disagree

In reading the comments to my previous post, I was struck by comments from Paul.  I'm afraid that I have to strongly disagree with some of the assertions that he makes.

The concept of race as a classification for the basis of discrimination is a product of 19th century America.  Certainly prejudice has always been with us but it was based on other factors such as religious belief,  social class, and or wealth/economic power.  The ancient Greeks classified people based on culture and language, but not physical appearance.  Any person adopting the Greek language and culture could become Greek.  Slavery as practiced by ancient peoples was based on conquest, war, or debt, not skin color or any other physical characteristic.  In addition, the slave status of the parents did not result in automatic slave status of their offspring.  Slaves could buy their freedom and become respected members of the society--own business, intermarry, own property, etc.  The peculiar institution of slavery as practiced in the United States is uniquely American.

My statements about white America's creation of a system of subjugation based on the artificial construct of race aren't biased, just historically accurate.  Don't take my word for it, follow some of the links in my previous post or do your own research.  The Swedes and the Germans as well as many other European groups were among the people that settled in America.  At the time of Linnaeus' and Blumenbach's work on racial classification, America was in its infancy but it was America that latched on to the theories of race espoused in their respective works.  Even if one concedes that the Europeans that settled America brought their biases with them, I do not see that it negates that white America perpetrated the use of racial classification into a system of racism based specifically on skin color that far exceeded anything in place in Europe.  In the late 17th century, America introduced the concept of heritability into the mix.  Once a slave, not only were you a slave but all of your descendants inherited that status.  This particular form of slavery was uniquely American.  Slavery was no longer a status conferred on individuals because of factors such as war, conquest, or debt.  It was a station in life, passed from generation to generation and based on skin color.  So determined was American society to maintain the status quo, it developed an elaborate classification system to determine who was classified as black regardless of the individual's external appearance, thus the proliferation of the "one drop" rule. (see my previous post for more info)

Certainly, African-Americans are not the only victims of racism.  I never said that we were and I don't see the relevance of the observation.  It doesn't lessen the impact of the systemic legal, social, and cultural discrimination against African-Americans to state that others have suffered too.  It's like stating to an abused child, "You're not the only child to have been abused." 

The use of skin color to subjugate an entire people with a shared ancestry is a uniquely American concept.  The form of racial discrimination experienced by African-Americans is also unique.  The first blacks brought to this country were indentured servants as were many whites.  It is only over time that blacks became slaves and slavery became a heritable station in life.  The origins of black slavery lay in a belief in the racial theories that race is biological and that inequalities are natural.  In culture after culture, slaves often became part of the mainstream, were able to remove themselves from slave status.  In the United States, even the few slaves able to purchase their freedom or freed by benevolent masters, were still assigned inferior status in America.  One of the most beautifully written documents in our history, the Declaration of Independence, declared "that all men are created equal."  However, it was understood by the drafters and signers of that document that this did not mean those of African ancestry living in America.

I don't mean to annoy or attack anyone, but I think that the only hope of some type of peace in matters of race is a full recognition of historical facts about the nature of race and slavery in this country.  I suspect that at the heart of the lack of racial harmony in this country is a sort of blindness to fully examining the attitudes toward race that were as much the cornerstones of the founding of this country as principles of equality and personal liberty.

I also have to disagree with tracing racial prejudice back to the bible.  Race was not a concept for the ancient peoples of biblical times.  Certainly there was prejudice based on nationality and religious beliefs but not race.  Race is a fairly modern concept.  Prior to the 17th century, there is no evidence that people commonly classified themselves based on race. 

I also reject the flat out assertion that the ancient Jews invented God as an excuse to make war against their neighbors.  That's a very broad statement that undermines Christianity as well as Judaism, but I'll save that discussion for another post.

 

Tags: history of slavery, racism, racial classification, racial prejudice, race theory