In-Reply-To: ORUNIX:owner-marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx's message of 04-12-95 09:42
One small point about Kenny M's recent post: he argues "In its origins,
racism does in fact have religious groundings". This is empirically
incorrect. Yes, for early European explorers, Africans were heathen,
but they were not perceived as being racially inferior. There are
many documented cases of Africans in Portugal in the late 1500s who
married native Portugese men and women, entered skilled crafts guilds,
and more or less effectively became integrated into Portugese society--
once, of course, they accepted the One True Religion. The idea that
Europeans considered Africans to be racially inferior, subhuman,
intellectually backwards because of religious beliefs (Catholicism)
is simply not true. --So when did Africans begins to be painted as
subhuman animals, racial inferiors? Not suprisingly, with the rise
of the slave trade. Racism historically emerged as a rationale for
treating humans like animals.
For more detail about this interesting historical development, see
Oliver Cox, Race, Caste, and Class.
Miles Jackson
mjackson@xxxxxxx
------------------
One small point about Kenny M's recent post: he argues "In its origins,
racism does in fact have religious groundings". This is empirically
incorrect. Yes, for early European explorers, Africans were heathen,
but they were not perceived as being racially inferior. There are
many documented cases of Africans in Portugal in the late 1500s who
married native Portugese men and women, entered skilled crafts guilds,
and more or less effectively became integrated into Portugese society--
once, of course, they accepted the One True Religion. The idea that
Europeans considered Africans to be racially inferior, subhuman,
intellectually backwards because of religious beliefs (Catholicism)
is simply not true. --So when did Africans begins to be painted as
subhuman animals, racial inferiors? Not suprisingly, with the rise
of the slave trade. Racism historically emerged as a rationale for
treating humans like animals.
For more detail about this interesting historical development, see
Oliver Cox, Race, Caste, and Class.
Miles Jackson
mjackson@xxxxxxx
------------------