Racialism
Racism was a by product of colonialism and nationalism. The culturalism ideas and Primordialism which used racism to argue for the innate superiority of Europeans and therefore justify their right and duty to subdue and control other parts of the world inhabited by inferior races.
Why race is a myth- there's really no such thing!
Racialist ideas are rooted in the belief that humanity is not one single human race, but can be meaningfully divided into separate races. This view states that the differences between can the races are biological and fixed. Racialist theories usually ascribe different traits to different races, with certain races being naturally 'good' or 'bad' at different things, which leads to a racial hierarchy. Racialist theories then usually advocate racial segregations, to avoid 'polluting' the bloodstock of the races.Scholars in the mid eighteenth century began to classify people on the basis of race. Scandinavian born Carolus Linnaeus' work 'Systema Naturae' (1735) was the first to create a classification of race based on skin colour, and different races were actually said to be different species of living things. Homo Europeus was 'of fair complexion, sanguine temperament and becoming form... of gentle manners, acute in judgment... governed by fixed laws'. On the other hand, Homo Afer was deemed to be of '... black complexion, phlegmatic temperament... crafty, indolent... governed in their actions by caprice'.
The White Man's Burden 1899
Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain.
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
A late-19th-century illustration by H. Strickland Constable shows an alleged similarity between "Irish Iberian" and "Negro" features in contrast to the higher "Anglo-Teutonic"
This system of racial classification was added to by Johann Blumenbach, professor at the University of Gottingen, Germany, who created a 'science' called craniology, which tried to use the shape and dimensions of human skulls to measure intelligence ratios. His work 'On the Natural Variety of Humankind' decided that the shape of the African skull limited his capacity for intelligence. He also placed the Western European Caucasian at the top of all civilised beings.
Arthur de Gobineau
The French aristocrat and writer Arthur de Gobineau (1816–1882), is best known for his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–55) which proposed three human races (black, white and yellow) were natural barriers and claimed that race mixing would lead to the collapse of culture and civilization. He claimed that "The white race originally possessed the monopoly of beauty, intelligence and strength" and that any positive accomplishments or thinking of blacks and Asians were due to an admixture with whites. Gobineau later used the term "Aryans" to describe the Germanic peoples (la race germanique).[63]
Gobineau's works were also influential to the Nazi Party, which published his works in German. They played a key role in the master race theory of Nazism.
Race versus ethnicity
The word ethnicity has largely replaced the word race in everyday usage, but the two terms do not mean the same thing. Race concerns a person's biological make-up. Ethnicity refers to a variety of attributes about an individual: the culture they associate with, the culture their parents were brought up in (their ancestry), the language they speak, the history of the region they were brought up in and, in some cases, their religion.
Mo Farah is a British citizen, but that is just one way he could be described. Referring to his 'race', he could be described as black. However, understanding his ethnicity gives a much fuller picture. Mo Farah was born in Somalia and came to London at the age of eight to join his father (a British citizen). He barely spoke any English when he arrived. He went to school in London where his talents were spotted and he was encouraged to pursue athletics. He has gone on to become a double-double Olympic gold-medal winner. Mo Farah is a devout Muslim and an Arsenal supporter. In 2016, he was honoured with a knighthood. Exploring someone's ethnicity, as opposed to making simple judgements on them based on their race, allows us to explore a variety of aspects of a person's experiences and ancestry.