Modern racism has been entirely defined by the artificial constructions of "black" and "white", which are American inventions.

Slavery encouraged "whites" to look at "blacks" as a separate species, because to view slaves as human beings would be massively problematic from a Christian perspective. This notion of biological division between "whites" and "blacks" remains a strong current in US racism, often backed by junk-science. I read a commentary 15 years ago that said there would never be another white heavyweight boxing champion because blacks were "naturally stronger", a bit like gorillas. But the heavyweight division is now dominated by Russians.

The claim that Africans are a separate "species" is very difficult to maintain outside the American bubble. In Europe, Africans and Europeans have lived in close proximity for millennia. Skin colour is closely (and correctly) associated with climate - pale Scandinavians, dark Italians, darker Africans. There is no evidence that the Roman Empire - which founded Europe's civilization - viewed black Africans as any more "barbaric" than blond Saxons. Both were enslaved, and both could become free Romans.

"Africanness" has little to do with racism outside the United States. In other parts of the world racism is most often directed at transnational or nomadic communities - Jews and gypsies - who are often accused of not playing by local rules of business or ethics. Watch Borat for a reminder.

Uhm... You do know that the slave trade was started by European nations to supply their colonies in the Carribeans, right? This was long before there even was a United States of America, and the slave traders certainly used race to justify their trade to the people in their home countries.

Yes, slavery existed for longer in the United States than elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that one should ignore that Europeans started the slave trade in the Americas.

Europeans didn't invent slavery - seem to remember Egypt's King Ramases had a few Jewish slaves kicking around in the early part of the Bible.

Yes, Europeans participated in the American slave trade. So too did black West Africans, who captured and sold their neighbours.

But the point I'm making is that it was only Americans (and white South Africans) who systematized the notion of "whites" and "blacks" through hundreds of years of slavery and then another century of segregation.

Great post.

But the point I'm making is that it was only Americans (and white South Africans) who systematized the notion of "whites" and "blacks" through hundreds of years of slavery and then another century of segregation.

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What an idiotic statement, the notion of race and what constitutes "white" and "black" and other races for that matter was around long before the US was even a thought.

Historical Definitions of Race

From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the merging of folk beliefs about group differences with scientific explanations of those differences produced what one scholar has called an "ideology of race" (Smedley 1999).

The word "race", along with many of the ideas now associated with the term, were products of European imperialism and colonization during the age of exploration. (Smedley 1999) As Europeans encountered people from different parts of the world, they speculated about the physical, social, and cultural differences among various human groups. The rise of the Atlantic slave trade, which gradually displaced an earlier trade in slaves from throughout the world, created a further incentive to categorize human groups in order to justify the subordination of African slaves. (Meltzer 1993) Drawing on Classical sources and upon their own internal interactions — for example, the hostility between the English and Irish was a powerful influence on early thinking about the differences between people (Takaki 1993) — Europeans began to sort themselves and others into groups associated with physical appearance and with deeply ingrained behaviors and capacities. A set of folk beliefs took hold that linked inherited physical differences between groups to inherited intellectual, behavioral, and moral qualities. (Banton 1977) Although similar ideas can be found in other cultures (Lewis 1990; Dikötter 1992), they appear not to have had as much influence upon their social structures as was found in Europe and the parts of the world colonized by Europeans. However, often brutal conflicts between ethnic groups have existed throughout history and across the world, and racial prejudice against Africans also exists today in non-colonised countries such as China and Japan.

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"Skin colour is closely (and correctly) associated with climate - pale Scandinavians, dark Italians, darker Africans."

The Eskimos and Aleuts are reading this, thinking, "Boy, there's a memo we didn't receive."

If one might engage in a little pop-evolutionary-anthropology.­..

Sun reflecting off blinding white snow + 24 hour daylight during the summer = need for darker skin.

Just sayin'...

What a stilted and simple minded hypothesis. American's have taken responsibility for their racial injustices. European's never have. Racism and slavery are alive and well today in many parts of the world (the U.S. excluded). Today parents are selling their daughters into the sex slave industry in Thailand, African genocides have made virtual slaves of the residual decimated populations in their own countries, fundamental Islamists use their women as slaves throughout the Middle East and South East Asia.

Your hypothesis is just thinly veiled anti-U.S. dogma. Get a brain. Get a life.

Yes, there are different types of slavery but that has nothing to do do with African slavery in America and the Carribbean. You are confusing the issues. European Slavery is based in Historical fact and accounts for thr greater part of Racisim and strained race relations in America. Carribbean countries were spared the worst of the lingering after effects because they continue to be largely dominated by the predominantly black races. America has not taken responsibiloity for either slavery or the ongoing effects of racisim from slavery. If this were so, the issue would be laid to rest by now through a process or recocillation and unity. Instead, there is a contimum of divisive and discriminatory attitudes based on race. What America has done is to say, we freed the slaves, we gave them rights and opportunity and it was our ancestors who did this, we are not responsible. The desire is to have people assimilate and move on from the past, avoiding this issue wherever possible. There is only Anti US dogma when one refuses to deal with the past and understand how it affects the present, in order to engage in a healing process for future generations.

What Americans are you talking about? Certainly not the millions of minorities now living in America. Certainly not those Whites recently born into the new American reality. Slavery was the work or the Europian Americans. Unless of course, the ancestral "Americans" came from another planet.

Racism is not confined to the United States, as I made quite clear.

But this binary notion of "black" and "white" is an American invention, almost exclusively so.

I say almost. Apartheid South Africa also used these ridiculous definitions. For example, under apartheid Chinese people were deemed "black" but Japanese "white", even though there is little physical difference between the two.

American usage of the terms "black" and "white" is scarcely less absurd. Read Roth's The Human Stain. Until the US gets over trying to categorise people in this binary fashion, it will never have a sensible attitude to race.

Greenwich,

Your post further deepens my belief that Europe wouldn't know what to do with itself if it didn't have America to feel superior to. Perhaps Euros would actually honestly deal with their own shortcomings?

Earth to Greenwich: No modern Americans, even the most virulently racist ones, of any color, consider Africans or blacks as a different "species." This is 2008. Also, keep in mind that gunslingers no longer have shootouts in saloons after a few slugs of whiskey and being cheated at cards. We no longer practice phrenology in the States either.

And good for the ancient Romans that they treated all non-Romans equally horribly.

Conveniently you jump from ancient Rome to present day America and declare that America "invented modern racism." You seem to forget that the particular institution of slavery as it was practised in the United States and which is the very root of our current racial problems in the US, was invented by Europeans, for Europeans.

I'm not talking about slavery as it was practised by those sophisticated Romans. I am not talking about slavery as practised by Africans. I am talking about Europeans who went throughout the world enslaving Africans (and many other ethnic groups) to enrich Europeans.

It was Europeans, your people Greenwich, the descendants of those ancient Romans, who invented the concept that Africans are a "different species," not modern day Americans.

It's nice to know, however, that in current day Europe when Europeans kick in the heads of Jews, gypsies, African refugees and Indians it's not for something so base - so American! - as their skin color, but for complex reasons of the victims being "transnational" and not willing to fit into the culture. Oh how sophisticated.

Your post is absurd, and, ironically, dripping with European chauvanism.

"America has not taken responsibiloity for either slavery or the ongoing effects of racisim from slavery."

Really Neal? It seems race is al lthat America talks about. We are obsessed with race. Presidents have officially apologized for slavery.

When you say "responsibility for" racism, that's a very curious statement. What would constitute taking "responsibility for" racism? Some kind of reparations? How would that work out I wonder?

We've been "taking responsibility" for slavery ever since at least the Civil Rights movement and legislation which has been occurring since 1964. We have affirmative action. We have whole government offices devoted to fair employment and housing. We have all sorts of educational programs at every level of public education to try to understand racism and the lingering effects of slavery.

I just don't know if you have thought through your "taking responsibility for slavery" statement too well.

Earth to Greenwich: No modern Americans, even the most virulently racist ones, of any color, consider Africans or blacks as a different "species."

Earlybird you should check out this thread:

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Re: Race, IQ, and more Clicks!
by BJ&TheBear
06/06/2008, 1:21 PM # Favorites Reply

"Second the motion. Why does anyone talk about "races", which as I heard about it in Biology, has no scientific meaning at all, except as the Human Race?"

Because it does have scientific meaning. You were simply too ignorant to recognize the political influences of academia. Race is subspecies. It's no less valid than saying that the Bengal and Siberian tiger are valid subspecies classifications. Incidentally, tigers have smaller autosomal FST (a measure of within population variance as compared to total variance) than do humans if one considers six major racial groups.