Theories of “Race” 

Michael Banton’s piece on the theories of race help the readers understand how the idea of race came to be and how different races were identified. Cuvier believed that one’s physical prowess determined the quality of their culture and the limits of their mental abilities. Banton’s article explains the theories behind racism, a social response that cannot be inherited, yet can be learned through social practices. The creation behind different races seems to be linked to the belief that whites were superior beings to humans of different color, race allowed European colonists to justify their capitalist motives in foreign territories.

Banton points out that while discrimination and crime are inevitable parts of society, racial discrimination places certain people within a perceived social category solely based off of differences in appearance. The theories of race piece also explain a shift in the use of different racial identifications from one that justified exploitation of labor to practices of expulsion.

Race

Mikalila and Lemonik declare that race was born out of capitalist beliefs, those who could not advance as quickly or as efficiently as the Europeans did must be lesser beings.  Colonizing the Irish helped establish a racial dominance that the British spread throughout the expansion of their empire. If race was not born out of capitalism it must have been a belief founded in religion where whites claimed that blacks must be lesser beings because they believed they were the descendants of Ham. What caught my attention was the creation of the IQ test in 1905 Continue reading →