Undoubtedly, race is the social aspect that impacts our everyday lives; however, its view was changing as a result of major events. In the 16th century, the term race was generally recognized in Europe, but few realized its actual meaning (Saini, 2019). In the 18th century, Blumenbach shared the notion of Caucasian which characterized every white person, disregarding their actual ethnicity and culture (Saini, 2019). During the next 200 years, the Caucasians were separated into smaller groups and some nations were viewed as more superior due to their ethnic heritage (Saini, 2019). Consequently, Arthur de Gobineau identified the white as a privileged social group whereas Negroids were perceived as an inferior community.
Unfortunately, people in the 19th century experienced scientific racism that was called the eugenics movement that aimed to selectively breed a superior person. However, Herrnstein and Murray argued this position and considered the concept of race to have only genetic roots (Glasgow et al., 2019). The middle of the 20th century brought a new idea of separating all people into four races: white, black, colored, and Indian. Yet the situation of black people did not change and because of the prejudice towards their skin color, Stephen Lawrence, a black British boy, was ruthlessly killed in 1993 (Saini, 2019). In the 20th century, racism started to be strongly oppressed and it can be concluded based on the numerous attacks on the British National Party book shop that was not following the modern beliefs (Saini, 2019). Nowadays, people value the utmost respect for individuals of every skin color, and, therefore, racism has become less common across the world.
Bibliography
Saini, A. 2019. Interview with Salhotra. M. Imperial College, London.
Glasgow, Joshua, Sally Anne Haslanger, Chike Jeffers, and Quayshawn Spencer. What Is Race?: Four Philosophical Views. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019.