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Now we are going to take some time to prove these points by
looking at the history of the development of race and racism. The his-
tory of the construction of racism is very long so this is not a compre-
hensive history lesson. We will provide a broad overview of how vari-
ous aspects of white society were involved in the construction of race
and racism: religion, science, medicine, philosophy, government, etc.
We will also be jumping around a bit in time, but will always try and
make time periods clear.

Historical

ConstructS

Religion as a

justification for racism:

uring the reformation (16th Century [1500s] & 17th Century [1600s]), a key question among Christian
religious hierarchy was whether Blacks and “Indians” had souls and/or were human. In this time period,
DEuropeans were exposed more frequently to Africans and the indigenous people of North and South
America, and the church vacillated between opinions. The Catholic and the Protestant churches arrived at differ-
ent answers to the question at different times, which created signifi cant differences between the two systems of
slavery. The Catholic Church was the fi rst to admit Blacks and Indians had souls, which meant in many Catholic
colonies it was against the law to kill a slave without reason. The Protestant-Calvinist Church wanted to sepa-
rate and distinguish themselves from
Catholicism, and therefore was much
slower in recognizing the humanity of
Africans and Indians.

With the increasing impor-
tance of slavery, religion was used
as a means to justify racist divisions,
classifying people of color as ‘pagan
and soulless’. However, “As sub-
stantial numbers of people of color
were converted to Christianity, and as
religion itself lost much of its power
as a legitimizing agent, justifi cations
for the brutality of slavery changed.”
The slave-based economy in the south
necessitated a racist exploitative sys-
tem, which led to the development of
biological, zoological and botanical
Slavery Ordained of God – 1857 – an example of many articles using religion to theories to ‘explain human difference
justify slavery and to justify slavery.’ 1
2 The Construction of Race & Racism The Construction of Race & Racism 3