How old is racism?

Racism as we know it, it is assumed, has always existed. For most people, the way that we currently divide and categorize humanity is an inevitable consequence of human interaction. In my own experience, this particular way of talking about racism’s legacy is especially prevalent among many white Americans who make such claims in response to people naming some sort of unique practice of racially prejudicial oppression that was employed by western European civilization. The response, in one sense, can be seen as a defensive reflex to how many racially minorities within the United States, and the majority peoples that were subjected to colonization globally, have narrated white supremacy. Some of the contention, however, ought not to be dismissed entirely. Many will look at the tribal and ethnic tensions that exist all around the world as a problem as old as human civilization. Isn’t this a strong argument for the reality that the racism that was practiced by white/western Europe is indeed just a reflection of what has always been?

There are significant rebuttals to this point.

In response, I and others, would grant them that ethnocentric or tribalistic hostility is indeed and old phenomena. In-group and out-group mentalities are part of the hidden forces that keep humanity apart.[1] Western Europe certainly did not develop that human problem. However, something peculiar did occur in the West that must be acknowledged as being unique and distinctive in the story of racism. First is the colonial encounters that began in the 15^th century. We know the rhyme; “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Europeans had these early encounters with so-called new world peoples seen through western Christendom gazes. And they saw themselves as the pinnacle achievement of humanity, and everyone else as backwards sinful savages. This history has shaped the long legacy of western relations with the majority of the world since. The development of the doctrine of discovery, followed also by ideas like manifest destiny, initiated a devastating global settler colonial infestation.[2]  

Then, in the 18^th century, with a colonizing racial gaze already in place, and the ongoing need to ethically justify such “Christian” behavior, the Enlightenment began to unfold. This was an emphasis on turning to “reason” and the scientific method to answer all our most pressing human questions. Western Europe gained confidence in their own ability to be objective interpreters and catalogers of the world around them. And so they classified everything, from plants to humans, based on their own supposedly objective perspective. It seemed common sense to them that biologically there were different kinds of humans. Through a pseudo-science, that has now been repudiated, they ranked humanity into a racial hierarchy. And to no one’s surprise, they classified white Europeans as the pinnacle of humanity at the top of the hierarchy. White people are superior and supreme. They are the standard for what is right. Likewise, for most people, the Black African, was in their estimation the opposite of whiteness and western civilization. They normally fell at the bottom of the racialized hierarchy. There were some nuances with how others were laddered in this human species breakdown, but in all cases, everyone around the world was inferior to western Europe. This is a quick short-hand of the history, and I encourage you to follow up and read more, but in response to the question of whether racism is old and ancient, one must interject that there is something distinct about the kind of white supremacist racism that arose globally. Especially because of its scientific, theological, and biblical justifications that bolstered it, which I can’t fully unpack in this little post.[3]