Racism

Well, this was quite an interesting read. Two things caught my attention.


The first was about racism. Even after industrialization and the abolition of slavery, there were still ideas of racism spreading, but this time, instead of advocating against it through religious regions, they advocated for racism through science! Let's just let that sink in. Science, of all things, propelled racism. Obviously these so called scientists were a little biased. They used science to say that the human skulls of whites were larger and more advanced than those of the minorities and blacks. That's crazy. So, not only do people's fears about physical differences prevent them from giving blacks the same respect as themselves(whites), but now the so called "inside" differences are too. And not only that, but because of this whole idea of germs and the theory of that coming out, there were fears about touching these "inferior" races because touching them could compromise your health and the future of the whites. It's quite depressing to think about. and it's even more depressing to think about how I would have acted back then. If that was the way of thinking, and science backed it up, why would anyone question it, if science was to provide the proof for all things and science seems absolute?


The second thing to catch my eye was the "scramble for Africa". Like, wait, what? European powers negotiated for these lands, acting as if no one was on these lands. That would make me so frustrated if I lived in Africa. I'm glad that they gave resistance and made them work for it. They didn't go down without a fight, and it took years and years for some of the powers to conquer places. But I guess, science said they weren't really the same as them, so it was alright for them to take over, because it was their duty to help these inferior races. They needed to be civilized, no longer to be the savages of their race.