The Definitions of Race

Welcome back, readers! This week I am picking up where I left off at part 3 of Aronson’s Race, where Aronson dives into several different definitions of race as they developed in different parts of the world. 

Inventing Race

Aronson begins chapter 7 with two very different quotes: one from Antonio de Montesinos who criticized the Spanish for their racist ideas of “Indians”, and one from Francisco de Vitoria who saw indigenous people as “feebleminded” and inferior to Europeans. This is a very effective opening to the discussion of the new world, as it illustrates how polarizing the ideologies of the Spanish (and other Europeans) could be. Aronson then transitions into the history of Bartoleme de Las Casas, a very important figure of this time period. He was said to be “a man without prejudice,” (page 95), as he believed the native Americans were his equals as well as challenged many other prejudicial ideas in Europe. It is important that Aronson puts emphasis on this person, as his philosophy has influenced many generations who came after him in a similar way to Aristotle. 

Aronson then embeds his own insight into his writing as he explains the behavior of slave owners:

“Believing people are slavelike and treating them inhumanely fit together seamlessly. The overseer holding the whip sees the cringing slave and calls him cowardly; he doesn’t notice the weapon that is supplying his own courage and creating the slave’s fear. The master who parcels out food to his gangs of workers sees them as childlike and forgets that they would not be so dependent if he didn’t own them,” (Pages 95-96). 

This passage is very effective in the way that it explains the relationship between the slave and the slave owner. The slave owner is a slave to his own ideology; the overseer’s whip and the master’s supply of food are what give him control. Without these things (which encompasses other means of systemic control), they would have no power over their slaves whatsoever. Their white race would not make them feel superior nor drive their hatred for those who are different. This passage is important for the reader to remember, as it explains one of the reasons why slavery has been defined in so many different ways. Throughout history, people have been enslaved because of skin tone, class, and religion. Although all of these characteristics are very different, enslavement of these people were all made possible by the superiority complex of people who felt that they had systemic power over others. 

In chapter 8, Aronson continues to explain the history of religious prejudice and the massive power that Christianity had over Europe. German priest and theologist Martin Luther began a revolution of spreading the word of God to all citizens. He started to print Bibles in different languages so that poorer citizens would not have to understand Latin to read it. Despite his efforts to spread this new Christianity to more people than high priests, Jews rejected it. This angered Martin Luther, and with the power that he had over the people of Germany, he created the idea that Jews were a “sickness” (this differs from Hitler’s reign over Germany, as he detested all religion). Then came the collisions between the English and the Irish Catholic. The English saw the Irish as savage while the Irish saw the English as entitled. Aronson later emphasizes the hostility between these groups, as their hatred for each other contributed to European racism. 

Race

Aronson begins the next part of his book with an experiment that was attempted by a school teacher after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Jane Elliott convinced her young students that those with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes. Soon after she segregated the class in the ways that blacks and whites had been segregated, the children with brown eyes claimed their superiority and discriminated against the students who were different from them. Despite every child in the class being white, a clear divide was easily made once the children were given a reason to make it happen. This well-known experiment is important to note, for not only does it show the need that the culture had to separate people into groups, but also showed how prejudice can be taught at such a young age in a very short amount of time.

Aronson begins the next chapter by utilizing visuals which include charts that showed the differences in skulls between different races and how skulls were often used to compare certain people with animals. This appeals to logos, as it is real evidence of the primitive way that people were judged based on certain characteristics. He then describes the impact of the Enlightenment era around the world. Although people like Isaac Newton and Nicholaus Copernicus were making ground-breaking discoveries about earth and space at this point in history, the ability to explain race scientifically opened up a new door to prejudice. Aronson examines the mindset of certain enlightenment thinkers, sarcastically stating that “apparently if you could gather enough information about a subject, analyze it objectively, and spell the results in a clear and logical system, you could explain anything,” (Page 120). This emphasizes the flaw that the people of this era had. While the highly religious groups before them lacked logic, these enlightenment thinkers lacked emotion in their explanations of race. They examined the physical characteristics of people rather than their inner character. As Aronson puts it, “as Enlightenment thinkers broke the chains of superstition, they forged the iron bonds of race,” (Page 122). New developments in sciences continued to drive the idea that race measured a person’s humanity. In France, dark-skinned people were seen as a completely different species. Even the Bible was re-explained, with Adam being the father of white people, not the father of all people. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach believed in natural order from light-skinned people at the top to dark-skinned people on the bottom. Although his beliefs were driven subjectively by his feelings rather than fact, these ideas were widely praised. 

The Age of Racism: America

One of the most interesting parts of this book was learning about how race was perceived differently by America and Europe. In America, black people were enslaved, despite the Declaration of Independents stating that “all men are created equal”. At this point, slavery was seen by many as a painful necessity. Although Thomas Jefferson was against slavery, he depended on them. In the 1790s, the definition of “who is white” began to be answered legally. Aronson puts emphasis on this, with each section in the following chapters focusing on a different aspect of whiteness that excluded a group of people. Being white was characterized by being free. Anyone who had the privilege to not worry about being enslaved was free and white. Therefore, the free whites of the country were seen as citizens. 

The Age of Racism: Europe

In Europe, race had a completely different meaning. Your race was not based on your skin tone, but the area where you lived. Therefore, a person could change races if they moved. Although Britain outlawed slavery in this time period, there was still blatant racism. Starving Irish moved to America in order to find jobs and start a new life but were met with racism similar to what they endured in Europe. The Irish were not black but seen as “nearly black” by Americans who resented them. At the same time, Jews in Germany faced a confusing time. Although they contributed to German culture and were sometimes accepted, a wave of anti-semitism would often crash over Germany. Arthur de Gobineau was a French novelist who believed that the Aryan race was superior over all others. He saw mixing races as a form of suicide for the collective human population, making the melting-pot that was and is America detrimental to humanity. As we’ve seen far too often, Americans feared these statements and agreed with Gobineau. 

Chapter 12 is especially impactful in its description of the brutality and cruelty that stemmed from American racism during and after the Civil War. A very simple yet dangerous idea of justice and hope was perpetuated during this war. “There is no real justice or fairness. Everybody thinks he is right and his enemy is wrong. In life, winners win and losers lose,” (Page 165). This idea lead to the loss of thousands of young American men as they fought for or against the idea that people of another race should have human rights. Even after the war ended and slavery was abolished in the United States, racism against black people was rampant. Lynchings were extremely common. Preacher Tom Dixon and writer of the pro-KKK film The Birth of a Nation highly influenced southern Americans. At this time, those of Italian descent were seen as “essentially black” and deserving of lynching. However, the majority of lynchings had African American victims. Horrifyingly, Henry Smith was tortured and burned alive in front of a crowd of men, women, and children. This chapter as a whole conveyed the atrocities that have happened fairly recently in history, and how racism lingered in the minds of people despite the law allowing freedom for all. 

This section of the book felt different in tone than the first. While the introduction was asking more open-ended questions, Aronson began to give his own insightful answers when exploring the definitions of race. I believe this was his intent, as he continues to add his own input into the ideas about race that different groups had. Thank you for reading this week’s post, and I hope you visit my blog again as I continue reading!