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Myth: Historical Invention The of Concept of Race

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Myth: Historical Invention The of Concept of Race

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The podcast episode “How Race Was Made” explains that the concept of race was created in America in the 17th century, more specifically, in Virginia. In the beginning, both poor Europeans and Africans worked together in the same conditions. After events, such as the Bacon rebellion, the elites feared the strength of the lower classes together. As a result, laws were passed that gave poor whites more rights and privileges while nothing changed for the Africans. These events were the beginning of what became legal distinctions based on skin color. Over time, more laws were passed, which created a racial hierarchy that justified slavery. The episode talks about how race wasn’t based on science but deliberately focused on dividing people to maintain power, wealth, and status.

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Myth: Racism comes from ignorance and misunderstanding.

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Myth: Racism comes from ignorance and misunderstanding.

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The idea that racism started because white people were ignorant or uneducated about other cultures is a widespread misconception. According to this perspective, racism is unintentional. However, the podcast makes it obvious that racism was created to excuse exploitation, which came first. Kumanyika states, "What they knew was that there was an economy there, like rice and cotton and other things, sugar, that had to be produced to make this economy go. And they wanted cheap labor and they enslaved people and then they later sort of deployed the science and all these other cultural forms to match and support the idea that they could exploit these people". Racism was a purposeful tactic used to support colonization, slavery, and profit-driven systems; it did not develop from misinterpretations. Knowing this changes our perspective on the causes of inequality.

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Myth : Racism Began with Prejudice, Not Power

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Myth : Racism Began with Prejudice, Not Power

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The idea that racism started with individual prejudice, people not liking or misinterpreting others who looked different, and that this resulted in exploitation, is another myth that is contested in the transcript. This narrative is reversed in the podcast. In actuality, exploitation began earlier, but as John Biewen says, "we're sort of in the habit of thinking that the problem with race and racism starts with attitudes." Chenjerai Kumanyika continues. "They enslaved people and wanted cheap labor, and then they sort of deployed the science and all these other cultural forms to match and support the idea”. This demonstrates that racism was created to defend economic structures such as colonialism and slavery, not the other way around. Power was its foundation.

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Another key myth in this podcast is the idea that slavery has always been based on race. According to the podcast, slavery in antiquity was a universal practice that was unrelated to skin color. Long before the concept of race was created, people of all races, including Europeans, were held in slavery. “Slavery is so much bigger, slave trades are so much bigger than our idea of race”. The widespread enslavement of Eastern Europeans, the word "slave" itself is derived from the word "slav." Slavery did not become racialized until the 15th century, when Portugal started directly enslaving Africans. The foundation for the subsequent racist structures in the Atlantic world was laid by this deliberate change, which wasn't inevitable or natural.

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The Founding Fathers are portrayed in this myth as unselfish, obliging patriots who collaborated harmoniously for the benefit of the country. They differed "pronounced differences in background and upbringing, in political vision and experience, in temperament and in career." Benjamin Franklin once emphasized their profound internal divisions by saying, "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately”. Their disputes, factionalism, and conflicting regional interests are simplified in the myth. The volatility and uncertainty at the core of the American founding are concealed by this unified story, which produces a false ideal of national origin. Their differences demonstrate that independence was a risky, negotiated process involving compromise and controversy rather than something inevitable or uncontested.

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were against Slavery

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were against Slavery

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According to this misconception, the Founding Fathers either wanted to abolish slavery or opposed it. In actuality, a number of them, including Washington, Madison, and Jefferson, owned slaves. "They were all slaveholders," the text states. Through provisions like the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Constitution safeguarded slavery. The idea that liberty is a universal founding virtue is called into question by this paradox. Despite declaring that "all men are created equal," the Declaration did not include slaves. A profound irony at the core of American freedom was exposed by the foundational documents, which permitted the ongoing subjugation of Black Americans. This inconsistency was later revealed by Black opponents such as Frederick Douglass and David Walker, who emphasized the myth's racially discriminatory underpinnings.

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Created a Perfect and Legitimate Democracy

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Created a Perfect and Legitimate Democracy

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According to this myth, the Founding Fathers established a completely democratic and lawful government right away and had unambiguous authority. In actuality, they created the validity of their conduct after the fact. Not everyone agreed with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and many groups were left out, including women, Africans held in slavery, and Indigenous peoples. According to the chapter, "the signature invents the signer," which means that the founders gave the appearance of authority by announcing it for themselves. The observation of  Jacques Derrida serves as a reminder that the formation was a show rather than a representation of a people who were already united. This myth obscures the reality that democracy was constrained, unfinished, and predicated on improvisation and exclusion.

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were Inspired by Christian Values

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were Inspired by Christian Values

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Evangelical figures like Tim LaHaye claim that the U.S. was formed as a Christian nation, shaped by fervent Christian Founding Fathers. This narrative, however, leaves out the founders' nuanced thoughts and Enlightenment influences. Even claiming Jefferson "had nothing to do with the founding of our nation”. The chapter states, “LaHaye suggests in his culture war on US-American paternity that 'evangelical Protestants who founded this nation’ should be reinstalled whereas both Jefferson and Franklin should be discounted”. This myth erases diversity and secularism by rewriting history to support religious nationalism. In actuality, many of the founders were either deists or opposed to organized religion. God is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution itself, and Jefferson was a well-known advocate of the strict separation of church and state.

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were only National Leaders

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Myth: The Founding Fathers Were only National Leaders

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The Founding Fathers are portrayed in this myth as lone American heroes who were only concerned with creating the United States. In reality, a large number of them were well connected throughout the world and considered their work to be a component of larger global movements. According to the chapter, Jefferson thought that "the spread of liberty was, and must be, an international movement," and Franklin "enjoyed life in France." Since it took place alongside the French and Haitian Revolutions and involved countries like Britain and France, the American Revolution was not a singularly national event. Ignoring this international background encourages American exceptionalism and simplifies the founding. In addition to constructing a nation at home, the founders were actively involved in a broader "At a time when 'cultural nationalism had not yet developed enough to disrupt the cosmopolitan republic of letters that made learned men like Franklin ‘citizens of the world’."

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March 1, 2017
For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of "race." Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.
Photo: The Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. The highlighted figure in the center is an effigy of Gomes Eanes de Zurara. The figure at the top right is Prince Henry the Navigator. Photo by Harvey Barrison. Download a transcript of the episode.

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For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of "race." Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika. Photo: The Monument to the Discoveries, L

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7_Heike-AmericanIndependenceMyth-2014.pdf

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The idea that race is a biological reality is among the most pervasive misconceptions. The so called three races of man Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid were taught to many children as though they were scientific classifications. In the podcast, Biewen recalls, “It was presented as a scientific, biological fact". However, Nell Irvin Painter explains this is false: “The three races – in the order usually presented, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid, Caucasoid at the top is not a biological fact, and only became science, in the sense of anthropologists said that this is true, in the 1940s.” Within so called races, there is more variance than between them. Race has no biological foundation; rather, it was constructed socially and politically to divide people, especially through colonial and slave regimes.