The reason race is socially constructed is because race has not always been with us. Many years ago people were not divided into racial classes based on their outer appearance but by their language, class, and customs. Race is an invention that came from slavery and oppression, all slaves had the same physical traits and appearance and were inferior to their plantation owners. That is how race evolved over social status and class. The enslavement of Africans allowed Europeans to establish some type of identity among their racial class. African slave labor was ideal and endless and slaves could not blend in like the Native Americans. It was difficult for African slaves to escape because they could not intermarry with Europeans and were not familiar with their surroundings. It is ironic that Thomas Jefferson was the first American to devise a theory on inferiority of Africans, when he had mixed child and was a slaveholder.
No comments:
Post a Comment