The Concept of Race & Racism throughout History

Racism is a topic that is widely discussed in the contemporary society. In spite of the fact that it is assumed that the people were able to move beyond the point when they take into consideration race of a person while interacting with one, the evidence suggests that there is a number of racial prejudices that survived this transition. That is why it would be logical to examine the evolution of the views on race within the last several centuries in order to understand how people perceived this concept. It is clear that for a considerable part of history individuals abused the concept of race because it was a convenient way to gain an economic, political and social advantage over other people.

The Ambiguity of Darwinism

To begin with, it may be beneficial to start the discussion by examining the point in time what the concept of race was first identified and introduced into the public dialogue. It was Charles Darwin who explores the evolution of humans and game to the conclusion that race is nothing but a variation that serves the sexual purposes, not biological. Darwin believed that there are no distinctions between races in terms of biology, but there is a significant difference when it comes to sexual preferences or mating patterns (179). That is why over the years the races were formed as some people were attracted to others how to have the same set of characteristics. That is why it is worth keeping in mind that as early as in the nineteenth century there were individuals who rejected racism as a mindset that relied on the biological differences between the races.

The major problem is that the views of Darwin were not interpreted correctly and contributed to the development of a line of reasoning that was essentially the opposite of what he advocated. Joseph Chamberlain was a strong supporter of the so-called Social Darwinism. For example, he believed that the white race was superior to the black race and it was “the white man’s burden” to spread civilization all over the world even if it implied that it would result in opposition from the locals (Chamberlain 22). The irony is that people like Chamberlain projected the concept of “the survival of the fittest” on the social environment and came to the conclusion that the more successful race was more fit to survive. This was not what Darwin had in mind when he developed his theory. The problem is that he tried to examine the biological evolution of species and came to this conclusion after considering numerous examples found in the wildlife. Therefore, racism as the one which was presented by Chamberlain was a conscious decision of people to oppress another group of people in order to artificially gain advantages.

The Social Roots of Racism

Just like Darwin, other scholars attacked the concept of racism, pointing out that it does not reflect the reality. For example. Edward Freeman argued that race is nothing but a learning distinction that people practice in a specific social environment. In order to prove his point, he discussed the cases when a child of one race was adopted by the parents of another race. This eliminated any distinctions between the two and proved that the understanding of race was relative (Freeman 2). He also extended his vision of racism over the society and argued that once a person becomes a naturalized citizen, he or she should no longer be perceived as a stranger. In other words, the people who represent the racial majority in a society must not discriminate against this person on the groups of race as they will be oppressing one of their own. From this position, racism does not make sense as any group strives to refrain from any kind of internal conflict.

With this in mind, it may be particularly interesting to examine the views of Ahlwardt Hermann whose position was dramatically different. He was confident in that it was vitally important to prohibit immigration since the latter harmed the society in numerous ways (Hermann 3). That is why he perceived racism as a logical reaction to the state of affairs when one race was trying to harm another. These racism views are similar to those of Chamberlain because they supported the need to oppress others in order to gain an advantage over a group of people based on the improper perception of their race. This is clear evidence when Hermann talks about the German race: he insists that the Jews are not able to contribute to the society because they will never become the part of it as they simply do not belong to the German race. Here, Hermann clearly confuses the concepts of nationality, ethnicity, and race; nevertheless, this confusion results in abuse of the notion of race that supports the oppression of the Jews and expulsion of them from the social life so that the “true Germans” can enjoy life.

The Jews: the Scapegoat of Racism

The Jews have been harmed by racism more than any other nation in the word. Since the Middle Ages, they faced discrimination in virtually every society that they lived in. The historical document titled “Petition of the Jews of Paris” provides a brief overview on the horrible treatment of these people in Europe. Thus, the Jews face a lot of job discrimination: they were not allowed to work in numerous areas; so, there was a handful of areas where they legally were allowed to be engaged. The irony is that this resulted in the wrong understanding of the Jews in the society: they did not want to focus on the field of banking and finance, they were forced to do. Furthermore, the history shows that the Jews were denied various property rights as well as certain legal rights. All this was done in order to ensure that the rest of the population who represented the racial majority could exercise their rights more and, therefore, get the unfair advantage that racism brought.

Theodore Herzl in his “The Jewish State” examines the centuries-long struggle that the Jews participated in and came to the understanding that the only logical solution to this problem would be to create an independent Jewish state. He also pointed out that racism against the Jews was primarily produced by the two factors that these people had no control over. On the one hand, the Jews were disproportionately rich due to the involvement in the financial sector which was forced by the society that prohibited them from pursuing any other line of duty. On the other hand, there were numerous poor Jews who were not successful in finance and supported various Communistic ideas. Herlz claims that the societies all over the world were not willing to accept Jews because they would ruin the competition. He pointed out that even though the Jews were sent to other countries, they would be rejected there. Therefore, it was clear that racism originated in the desire to gain a competitive advantage over a group of people.

The important point to note here is that the treatment of the outsiders, especially if they represented a different race was common for the majority of the societies in the world. For example, Enoch Powell stated that the United Kingdom should prohibit immigration as those who come to its territory fail to assimilate and destroy the country from within. While Powell was talking about the immigrants from the former British territories, this line of reasoning is aligned with the way in which the Jews were treated throughout history. That is even more important is that Powell also advocated the need for re-immigration that is sending the immigrants back to the countries that they come from. There is a clear evidence that this line of reasoning can be linked to the concept of the Jewish state in that sense that a racist society would better create a separate state for a small group of people rather than take it in. This can be explained by the fact that if the outsiders are expelled, then the dominance over them can still be exercised.

Racism and Economy

Finally, it may be useful to state that there is some economic foundation to racism. There is a peculiar document that was created by the Society of the Friends of Blacks that advocated the prohibition of the slave trade. The irony was that the people who signed that document did not support the abolition of slavery altogether: they simply came to the understanding that slave trade was not beneficial for the society. This is a line of reasoning which encourages people to see other people as merely a commodity. One would make no mistake arguing that this aspect of racism is closely related to the economy since in the majority of the cases racism would grant various advantages to the representatives of the dominant race in various forms. What is even more important is that the Society of the Friends of Blacks, despite its name, believe that full emancipation of the Africans was disastrous to the economy. This might be explained by the fact that this would put an end to the economy as the white people saw.

Surprisingly, the same views can be found not only in the previous centuries: they can be found in the contemporary world as well. For example, there is an article by Amy Chua that states that the modern democracy that is based on the notion of free market contributes to ethnic hatred in a number of ways. This article argues that the contemporary economy is still affected by the shifts in the population as much as it was several centuries ago. Even though people are no longer seen as a commodity, the movement of the people around the world affects the economic processes greatly. The author comes to a surprising conclusion that the white people are likely to feel the violent backlash of racism on them because they own a disproportionate amount of wealth. Indeed, it would not be correct to consider that racism is something that is only exercised by the whites towards the representatives of other races. The evidence shows that the contemporary economic world is dominated by a small number of white people who are hated by others

Conclusion

Having examined all the points that were mentioned in the paragraphs above, it is clear that throughout history the concept of race has been abused in order to gain various advantages. The analysis shows that the concept of race has been contested by the scholars; however, ordinary people were eager to misinterpret the concept as long as it helped them gain the advantage in the social life. The history shows that people of all races were oppressed by the majority so that the latter could enjoy the upper hand.

Works cited

Society of the Friends of Blacks. Address to the National Assembly in Favor of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Jews of France. Petton of the Jews of Paris, Alsace, and Lorraine to the National Assembly

Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.

Edward Augustus Freeman. Race and Language.

Theodore Herzl. The Jewish State.

Ahlwardt, Hermann. The Semitic Verses the Teutonic Race.

Chamberlain, Joseph. Excerpt from Foreign and Colonial Speeches.

Enoch Powell. ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech.

Chua, Amy. Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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