Whatever differences there are between us, we’re all part of the human race, right? So how come we use the term racist so commonly instead of other terms (like xenophobic for example) ?
In: 0
In the past, there was an actual race classification system, rather than ethnicity that we use nowadays. People used to ‘belong’ to three groups – caucasoid, negroid, and mongoloid, and of course where there are differences, racists will point them out as a reason to put down others or to make themselves appear better.
The term racism has just stuck as a rough synonym for xenophobia, it’s more widely known and easier to remember for most people.
Race is a social construct true, fundamentally we’re all part of the same species but have divided ourselves arbitrarily on levels of melanin in our skin for many reasons.
That said, this is a social construct that has to be recognized and fixed overtime now. We made race exist, until all of humanity can collectively- magically all at once say “okay not gonna see race anymore” and mean it- race will continue to cause unfair circumstances.
This could be minor, like a white dude naturally gravitating to a group of white strangers instead of black strangers- all the way up to institutional oppression through systems left over in a racist bygone era. But either way, this idea of “race” will continue to have consequences that we should address and slowly overcome.
[removed]
We’re using the colonizers’ language. The colonizers/conquerors saw the people of different ethnicities they dominated as subhuman, which came to be seen as a different race altogether.
Since the language refers to the colonized as a different race, the colonized (now speaking the colonists language) also refer to themselves as a different race.
While we now understand that humanity is a single species with variations in phenotype, the idea of having a superior/inferior group of people is not dead at all. Old idea, old terminology.
At least that’s my theory.
Latest Answers