Evolution of “race”
The social construct of race began in the 1600’s; it progressed over years, snowballed from an idea that became a synthetic reality. S ince then we have seen race and racism taking various kinds of oppression. Racism has evolved into many different forms over the years and continues to change frequently. At its humble beginnings racism was an excuse to own, abuse, oppress and dominate an entire population of people. Racism was constructed to justify the use and mistreatment of other ethnicity’s. “Race and freedom were born together” The creation of race explained why some people could enjoy freedom and some couldn’t. “Slavery predates race.” Slavery wasn’t invented to punish an inferior race, but race was created to justify …show more content…
And one of the many tools used to create this consensus, was a creation of racial oppression in legal law form. This was one of the first ever laws enacted in 1643 early Virginia, “1643 tax law: free black women were treated differently than white women since they were counted as “tithes,” workers, while free white women were not.” Groundbreaking in the fact that it made specific racial distinctions, this was in essence the beginning of race. It all begins with “were treated differently” creating superior amongst physical differences. This is another Virginia law but this one is about 30 years later, and there noticeable diffrences,“1705 code: included definition of slaves as real estate, subject to the same rules as land. Slaves could, according to Virginia law, be used as collateral for debts and confiscated if a debtor defaulted on a loan. They could be sold, inherited, and otherwise treated like other forms of property. “ Just 30 years later we can see a huge difference, in tone towards Africans, and much more definite slavery classifications. As the construct was set in place, racism became an idea alive in the minds of both oppressor and oppressed. When enough people come together and decide something is true, it then it becomes reality. Slavery was like this, and as the laws got worse racism got worse. ”Subject to the same rules as land” their society came together and decided an entire peoples worth by how they looked, hence creating feelings of superiority and resentment between the
The social construct of race began in the 1600’s; it progressed over years, snowballed from an idea that became a synthetic reality. S ince then we have seen race and racism taking various kinds of oppression. Racism has evolved into many different forms over the years and continues to change frequently. At its humble beginnings racism was an excuse to own, abuse, oppress and dominate an entire population of people. Racism was constructed to justify the use and mistreatment of other ethnicity’s. “Race and freedom were born together” The creation of race explained why some people could enjoy freedom and some couldn’t. “Slavery predates race.” Slavery wasn’t invented to punish an inferior race, but race was created to justify …show more content…
And one of the many tools used to create this consensus, was a creation of racial oppression in legal law form. This was one of the first ever laws enacted in 1643 early Virginia, “1643 tax law: free black women were treated differently than white women since they were counted as “tithes,” workers, while free white women were not.” Groundbreaking in the fact that it made specific racial distinctions, this was in essence the beginning of race. It all begins with “were treated differently” creating superior amongst physical differences. This is another Virginia law but this one is about 30 years later, and there noticeable diffrences,“1705 code: included definition of slaves as real estate, subject to the same rules as land. Slaves could, according to Virginia law, be used as collateral for debts and confiscated if a debtor defaulted on a loan. They could be sold, inherited, and otherwise treated like other forms of property. “ Just 30 years later we can see a huge difference, in tone towards Africans, and much more definite slavery classifications. As the construct was set in place, racism became an idea alive in the minds of both oppressor and oppressed. When enough people come together and decide something is true, it then it becomes reality. Slavery was like this, and as the laws got worse racism got worse. ”Subject to the same rules as land” their society came together and decided an entire peoples worth by how they looked, hence creating feelings of superiority and resentment between the