Except that is simply not true. Capitalism is far more recent that racism, unless of course you define capitalism as just “everything bad”. Racism exist because of tribalism and collectivism, capitalism is a recent individualist system- and individualism amongst governments is fairly recent.
I am not defining capitalism as just everything bad, and capitalism is not as recent as you think. You may be thinking of industrial capitalism, which is a more recent development.
American society developed the notion of race early in its formation to justify its new economic system of capitalism, which depended on the institution of forced labor, especially the enslavement of African peoples.
I am not defining capitalism as just everything bad, and capitalism is not as recent as you think.
No that’s pretty recent, racism is millennia old. Furthermore, yes mixed economies exist, actually now they’re basically the only thing that exists.
American society developed the notion of race early in its formation to justify its new economic system of capitalism, which depended on the institution of forced labor, especially the enslavement of African peoples.
I disagree that it was capitalism that needed racism to be justified, since slavery is anti-capitalistic. But yes, fake “racial science” was used to justify slavery, that however was not the origin of racism. Roman and Greek and many other empires used ethnic/racial division to justify their oppression. Even the Mongols whose empire was “cool and accepting” by ancient empire standards still had strong sentiments of a Mongol race being different from others.
Indeed brains are real and we are really fucking good at making the consequences of said brain’s beliefs just as real. But, recognizing that things such as race have absolutely no scientific, empirical basis whatsoever is kinda a really important step in repairing the racist damage that we’ve done. Race is only useful in sociology as long as we continue to pretend it exists, otherwise it serves no purpose other than as an excuse to hate each other.
Or maybe race doesn’t really exist outside our dumb little brains and capitalism was the real problem all along
Not to imply that ethnic/cultural tensions never existed before in history, but capitalism created racism as a tool of oppression, and of pitting working class people against each other.
Except that is simply not true. Capitalism is far more recent that racism, unless of course you define capitalism as just “everything bad”. Racism exist because of tribalism and collectivism, capitalism is a recent individualist system- and individualism amongst governments is fairly recent.
I am not defining capitalism as just everything bad, and capitalism is not as recent as you think. You may be thinking of industrial capitalism, which is a more recent development.
Historical Foundations of Race
No that’s pretty recent, racism is millennia old. Furthermore, yes mixed economies exist, actually now they’re basically the only thing that exists.
I disagree that it was capitalism that needed racism to be justified, since slavery is anti-capitalistic. But yes, fake “racial science” was used to justify slavery, that however was not the origin of racism. Roman and Greek and many other empires used ethnic/racial division to justify their oppression. Even the Mongols whose empire was “cool and accepting” by ancient empire standards still had strong sentiments of a Mongol race being different from others.
Brains are part of the world, and so are human behaviors. So long as racism exists, race as a sociological category is undeniably real.
Indeed brains are real and we are really fucking good at making the consequences of said brain’s beliefs just as real. But, recognizing that things such as race have absolutely no scientific, empirical basis whatsoever is kinda a really important step in repairing the racist damage that we’ve done. Race is only useful in sociology as long as we continue to pretend it exists, otherwise it serves no purpose other than as an excuse to hate each other.