Good read, Matt. Race is an engineered social construct intended to demonize, divide, and sow hate for the social and economic benefit of the “favored” in society.
Excellent piece! Highly appreciated! This is a truth that needs to be told and told and told again. Thank you.
For more on this whole "scientific" racism stuff, a great place to continue reading is Stephen Jay Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man." (Matt, you have read this I am sure.)
Yes, Gould's theory of "punctuated equilibrium" is very much debated and since his death he hasn't remained a darling of the scientific community, but DANG is that book excellent. And it will really grind your gears if this sort of nonsense riles you up.
Strong piece on how economic incentives drove the codification of race. The connection between Zurara's 1450s framework and current ICE enforcement shows how profitable lies persist across centuires. I've seen similar patterns where initial justifications for exploitation get embedded so deeply they outlive their original context, becoming self-perpetuating trhough institutional inertia rather than conscious choice.
I appreciate you writing this article. Anybody with the ability to reason and who is open to scientific proof would agree with your conclusions. However, the people who uphold white supremacy are not those people. I'm an American who has a black parent and a white parent, but am considered black. I have been treated as less than my entire life because of my brown skin.
The people who have benefitted from our racist history are perfectly happy perpetuating the myth of different races. In fact, they now run our country and have basically turned it into a fascist regime, which is based on racism. Tribalism also plays a large part. Nothing is more enticing than a group of people believing that they are better than everyone else. Skin color is just a convenient way to convince them. As you so aptly pointed out, it's worked for 500 years.
I would also like to add that the treatment of brown and black immigrants in the US today is no different than the slave trade. They are rounded up, their human rights violated, and sent to concentration camps and detention centers that are paid to house them. So basically, the people who run the private prisons, etc. are profiting off of brown and black bodies. There's really no difference.
We need a new vision of humanity in our relationship to one another and to our only home, the Earth. Oh, and meanwhile, I feel that people of European descent have a special responsibility to name and disrupt racism in action wherever and whenever we see it. Since race/racism is a social system, we either continue it or we resist it in our daily lives.
Good read, Matt. Race is an engineered social construct intended to demonize, divide, and sow hate for the social and economic benefit of the “favored” in society.
Excellent piece! Highly appreciated! This is a truth that needs to be told and told and told again. Thank you.
For more on this whole "scientific" racism stuff, a great place to continue reading is Stephen Jay Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man." (Matt, you have read this I am sure.)
Yes, Gould's theory of "punctuated equilibrium" is very much debated and since his death he hasn't remained a darling of the scientific community, but DANG is that book excellent. And it will really grind your gears if this sort of nonsense riles you up.
Strong piece on how economic incentives drove the codification of race. The connection between Zurara's 1450s framework and current ICE enforcement shows how profitable lies persist across centuires. I've seen similar patterns where initial justifications for exploitation get embedded so deeply they outlive their original context, becoming self-perpetuating trhough institutional inertia rather than conscious choice.
I appreciate you writing this article. Anybody with the ability to reason and who is open to scientific proof would agree with your conclusions. However, the people who uphold white supremacy are not those people. I'm an American who has a black parent and a white parent, but am considered black. I have been treated as less than my entire life because of my brown skin.
The people who have benefitted from our racist history are perfectly happy perpetuating the myth of different races. In fact, they now run our country and have basically turned it into a fascist regime, which is based on racism. Tribalism also plays a large part. Nothing is more enticing than a group of people believing that they are better than everyone else. Skin color is just a convenient way to convince them. As you so aptly pointed out, it's worked for 500 years.
Thanks Sarah. We need more critial thinking and reason. Just trying to do my part. Spread that reason however you can.
I would also like to add that the treatment of brown and black immigrants in the US today is no different than the slave trade. They are rounded up, their human rights violated, and sent to concentration camps and detention centers that are paid to house them. So basically, the people who run the private prisons, etc. are profiting off of brown and black bodies. There's really no difference.
It’s appalling.
Yes it is.
We need a new vision of humanity in our relationship to one another and to our only home, the Earth. Oh, and meanwhile, I feel that people of European descent have a special responsibility to name and disrupt racism in action wherever and whenever we see it. Since race/racism is a social system, we either continue it or we resist it in our daily lives.