LINK The Enlightenment and the origins of racism
This dark side of the era called the "Enlightenment" is all but forgotten (or some prefer to forget it...)
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Hmmmm origins of racism. It should be the evolution of racism as we did not start being racist, it is in our own origins. As apes, well back in our history we would have still have racism, just no words to name it. research with Gorillas shows close relatives were more acceptable to a group, even though never having met. They can smell how close a relation they are. Those with more distant or no relation would not be accepted into the group. And we are still apes, reacting to our more base instinct.
Savage
Level 7
Aug 19, 2018
0
@Matias Quite agree Matias. Well highlighted
@Matias Fair enough but keep in mind we don't really know much of what animals actually say to each other or even the level of communication. Yes humans have used Reason?? But it is driven by something deeper. A fear of other. And if it was true Reasoning, would racism really be the outcome??
All slavery going far back in human history is based on the idea that a group is inferior to a more dominant culture. The inferior group, always based on color or ethnicity, were always considered to be lesser beings. Those are the real origins of racism. All that these enlightenment figures was to formalize the thought behind the practice. .
wordywalt
Level 9
Aug 18, 2018
2
Certainly not so in the Roman world. Roman slaves were enslaved due to conquest, not race. The same with all slave cultures as the practice was/is utilitarian, certainly not ideological
@Bull! Slavery has always been ethnically based, if not racially. Those cultures which have been defeated in conflict have always been considered inferior,. Otherwise, the conquerers would say, they would not have lost.
@Geoffrey51 Actually, the romans created a whole new form of other beyond race or colour. You were either a citizen with full rights and powers or not, so you couldn't vote and had no rights, even if not a slave. The birth of a class system
@wordywalt Well, that's a fine way to commence engagement in debate! Anyway, that aside please Goodwin,S 2009, Africa in Europe: Antiquity into the Age of Global Expansion, Lexington Books. vol. 1, p. 41, note that "Roman slavery was a nonracist and fluid system".
It’s an interesting article but I don’t see how grappling with history is going to help us in the present.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Aug 18, 2018
0
@Matias I have always been uneasy with the constant trumpeting and glorification of western culture, said to be founded in logic by ancient Greek philosophers. There is a tendency to downplay or even disparage Eastern culture as lacking in rationality, but for me it is the Hindu philosophy of the Upanishads that truly grips.
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