Invention of the white race

[Mathew Forstater]

But Oliver Cox and others argue convincingly that we lose much by
conflating race, caste, ethnicity, nation, etc.  This is the Edward Shils
type "primordialist" thesis. Even if couched more in terms of structural
and social relations rather than "incongruities of blood" it is still a
big mistake not to carefully distinguish these different forms.

Mat Forstater

On Thu, 28 May 1998, 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. Much of the 19th century
> European racist 'science' was concerned about distinguishing among
> different 'breeds' of white-skinned peoples who occupied different rungs of
> social hierarchies.  American racists did not add anything new in that
> respect.  
k