The Invention of Race

June 17, 2019

In this feature, I recount a speech given by Boston University Journalism professor Caryl Rivers on the construction and origins of race.

Racism has been so deeply ingrained into society that tracing its origins has proven difficult, but not impossible, by historians. The desire for one group, namely white males, to be in charge of all others has led to conflict and separation between races. This has had resounding effects that still plague society today. In order to undo these harmful ideas that have been impressed on humans, we must understand our history and where these ideologies of racial ranking stemmed from.

The history of racism towards black people originates from slavery and oppression that coincided with the growth of America. Colonization by Europeans started as early as the 15th century, with English colonists taking all the land they possibly could from American Indians. By the 1620s, they clearly did not have enough laborers to work these large amounts of land. To combat this, colonizers established indentured servitude, which was mostly made up of Irish, Scottish, and English people.

By the 17th century, the number of European immigrants migrating to America declined, followed by an increase in African slave ships. With the growth of the African population came fear from large plantation owners that poor black and white people would socialize too much and have mulattos, another name for mixed children. Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), which consisted of former indentured servants, started the separation between poor black and white people because plantation owners did not want them to come together.

Prior to the 17th century, Africans were seen as similar to Europeans in their civility, but after a century of being brutalized, they became considered “savages.” During the Revolutionary period, which brought in new ideas of equality, planters with hundreds of slaves tried to find ways to justify their oppression of slaves. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, who had over 100 slaves comprised of men, women, and children, questions whether or not slavery should end. He speculates that black people are inferior to whites and, “that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous.” Jefferson propelled the idea of “The Great Chain of Being,” where human races were listed from most superior to most inferior, and within a generation, the idea that Africans are naturally inferior was incorporated into scholarly texts. With these ideas coming from such an influential figure, Jefferson was a major reason that the colonies continued to try and justify slavery.

In the mid 19th century, Dr. Samuel Morton wrote books arguing that there were measurable differences in the brains of different races. He tried to prove this by collecting skulls from around the world and filling them with mustard seeds. At the time, scientists did not know that brain size had no correlation with intelligence. His findings stated that, on average, African skulls were smaller than European skulls. Aside from the questionable scientific procedure involving mustard seeds, the experiment was biased, and he sometimes compared male white skulls with female black skulls.

From these findings, Louis Agassiz became convinced that Africans were a completely separate species than white people, and advocated for separate creations of the races. This was problematic because Agassiz was Harvard’s most prominent professor, founding the Museum of Paleontology and all the biological sciences at Harvard. He went on to train the next generation of scientists, who then spread these ideas of racial differences all over America.

The history of who is considered black in the eyes of the American legal system changed depending on what state a person was in and whether or not it helped white people. In 1705, Virginia considered a mulatto as any “child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a Negro.” In 1866, the same state decreed that anyone having 1/4 or more African blood is considered a colored person and in 1910, they changed it to 1/16th. In 1924, the Virginia Racial Purity Act defined a black person as having any trace of African ancestry, the infamous “one-drop” rule. Blackness had various definitions, depending on what state a person was in, with historian James Horton noting that one could cross a state line and legally change their race.

The legal decisions made by white men in America affected more than just black people. Legal courts decided the identity of other races based on whether these people were beneficial to them or not. In the 19th century, Mexicans were considered white and allowed to become naturalized citizens. In 1930, nativists lobbied for them to be classified separately in order to limit Mexican immigration and create distinction between whites and Mexicans. During WWII, Mexicans were classified as white again because demand for Mexican labor grew due to shortages from the war. In the span of 100 years, the legal identity of Mexicans changed three times based on the decisions of white men. 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, racism evolved into politics. The most prominent example would be Hitler’s ideas on Aryan supremacy and his attempts to eradicate Jews through Nazi rule. Hitler likely drew his racial ideologies from “Ariosophy,” which was an ideological system coined in the early 1900s that meant “wisdom concerning the Aryans.” 

Some Europeans believed that there was a life-force that pervaded the universe and that its mysteries could only be understood by people closely in tune with nature. It was believed that only the Ario-Germans had the capability to grasp these mysteries because they were the least attached to modern rationalistic and materialistic society. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in their eyes, were the Jews. Ario-Germans believed that Jews were a prime example of a lower race because they were heavily involved in materialism and rationalism.

This sparked the idea that the master race were the Nordics, who typically had blonde hair and blue eyes. Beneath Nordics on their made-up racial scale were Slavs. Slavs were considered Non-Aryan Untermenschen (“subhumans”), and Nazis wanted them enslaved and exterminated. Paradoxically, Slavs were allowed to serve in the German army because the Nazis were low on man power. This exploitation paralleled how Mexicans were only allowed citizenship when there were labor shortages. 

The Nazi’s racial scale had Aryans at the top and Jews, Romani (gypsies), and Afro-descendants at the bottom. Nazis wanted to rid the German state of Jews and Romani by deportation, and later by extermination in concentration camps, while black people were to be segregated and eventually eliminated through compulsory sterilization.

The history of racism has its origins in the white man’s desire to be at the top of the social ladder. When their superior position is threatened, they respond by attempting to suppress the rights of other races through legal measures that oftentimes result in war and death. From the 1790 Naturalization Act, which allowed only white people to be naturalized American citizens, to World War II, race has been the source of oppression and harm to those deemed lesser.