Invention of the white race

Tom Condit tomcondit at igc.apc.org
Thu May 28 16:36:06 PDT 1998


At 02:12 PM 5/28/1998 -0400, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>Social stratification has always been justified as 'natural' and linked to
>some biological features. European feudal mythology portraying aristocracy
>as a different 'breed' than peasantry ('blue" and 'red' blood, mythical
>tribal ancestry, etc.) is no different than American mythology portraying
>the dominant class as different 'race' than the underclass. Perhaps the
>Europeans did not use the word 'race,' but the principles of racism were
>already there -- the peasant was seen as belonging to a biologically
>different, and 'inferior,' species than the lord.

[snip] I think this is especially true in the culture of England, where there is a constant comparison of the blonde Saxons and Normans with the darker Welsh, to the point that the word "fair" (meaning, essentially, blonde) is synonymous with "equitable" -- or, as southern whites would put it in a blunter version, "That's might white of you."

Tom Condit



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