Racial discrimination is a common phenomenon today. When speaking of its origins, many people believe that Western elites promoted the racial inferiority of people with darker skin. It is considered that whites, primarily Europeans, purposefully encouraged the dissemination of the notion of their racial superiority to protect their higher political and social-economic position and multiple privileges associated with it. However, as Cornel West argues in his article “A Genealogy of Modern Racism” published in Prophesy Deliverance!: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity, the idea of racial superiority and inferiority firstly appeared at the discursive level. West (2002) states that the widespread acclamation of science and the revival of the classical aesthetic and cultural ideas throughout the 17th-18th centuries contributed to the strengthening of racial discrimination. A summary of West’s main arguments will be provided in the present paper.
The Renaissance was marked by the scientific revolution and, during that period, scientific thought started to prevail the theological dogmatism. As noted by West (2002), the change in the role of science was key to the consequent promotion of the Western norms of beauty and civility. The scientific revolution was linked to the development of a new form of rationality. Observation, categorization, and facts became highly important and began to serve as the core elements of not only the new scientific tradition but also the emerging common sense (West, 2002). The logical manner of thinking started to be employed by individuals across different spheres of performance. It was applied, for instance, when categorizing species, multiple physical objects, and, in a similar way, people of different races. In this way, the Renaissance marked the point in time when to differentiate based on objective, physical features by using the methods of scientific inquiry became a norm.
Another important phase in the promotion of racism in Western tradition was the revival of classical aesthetical values. According to West (2002), during the Age of Enlightenment, many writers, artists, and thinkers promoted the image of Greek beauty as an ideal. Besides viewing the whiteness of skin and certain structures of skulls and bodies as beautiful, Europeans commenced connecting physical appearance with the inner qualities of human characters. Thus, a white person with corporeal proportions similar to those observed in Greek statues and paintings was perceived as virtuous. At the same time, a black person was often regarded as deprived of those innate qualities of virtue. Thus, black people were viewed not only as less beautiful compared to Europeans but also less good in terms of various inner features, including intelligence and civility.
Overall, the formation of the Western ideals of beauty has its roots in the periods of Renaissance and Enlightenment. Those views were mainly prompted by discursive influences rather than political ones. In other words, the source of racial discrimination as people know it today is the idea that classical Greek proportions represent goodliness. In combination with the tendency for the scientific way of thinking that comprised logic, observation, and search for facts, that idea strengthened the belief that black individuals are less beautiful, both internally and externally. By applying those inquiry methods, researchers, scientists, cultural and public figures concluded that whiteness and beauty are inherent consequences of living in a more developed, civilized, better world. However, it is possible that many of those influential Europeans were convinced of the superiority of whiteness unconsciously and did not notice how that cultural belief distorted their thoughts which only seemed to be logical. It is valid to say that the same idea may covertly affect any person’s attitudes even today.
Reference
West, C. (2002). A genealogy of modern racism. In C. West (Ed.), Prophesy deliverance!: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (pp. 47-65). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.