Ap Euro Dbq Race Analysis

In ancient civilizations such as Rome, they had a very different conception of what race was. They believed race to stem from the colony or civilization that a person had originated from, and there was seldom any greater point of view that one race was inarguably better or stronger than any other given race. Indeed, modern conceptions of race only began to take form during the era of European history, and it was made for a selfish reason. In order to recognize how race developed its important to note that race was created in order to give a certain group of people a superiority complex over another. While race undoubtedly played major, pivotal roles in Europe during the turn of the 17th century, it’s large impact on the culture and economy

George Best describes in his document how people often misunderstand what race is, thinking it to be the fault of the sun, but he describes in his novel that the dark skin of those who live to the south of him was actually a punishment direct from god for being cruel during the biblical flood, (Doc. 2) [B]. While this explanation relies heavily on simple stories, the attempt to describe why some are different through religion is a way to have people widely conform to modern conceptions of race; people always look to god [C]. In another document, David Hume describes that he believes those with white skin are inherently better than those with darker skin, stating questionable and untrue facts about there never being a major African civilization, see Ghana or Mali. (Doc. 6) [B]. This is another reason as to have race accepted into the culture: it gives certain people a superiority complex, imploring them to agree with what a select few believe. Essentially, it paves the way for discrimination [C]. This type of reasoning is seen further in founding

And even now our society feels the repercussions of the old fashioned concept, having slavery for a shameful amount of time and still feeling the ripples of segregation from the mid-to-late 1960s. Race is not only useless and based in fake facts, but also has been nothing but a crutch on the people who it affects, which is most