Please read pages 422 to 435 in Chapter 17 , “The Analysis of Human Variation” , of the text ;and pages 397 to 401 in Chapter 16 of the text; as pertinent to questions B) and C) of Test 3
Carlos Linnaeus (Chapter 1; page 8 of the text ) wrote _Systema Natura_, first Tree of Life classification or taxonomic Tree of Life _without_ underlying Darwinian thesis that all life ( including humans) is related to all other life by “descending” from common ancestor species . In other words, Linnaeus’s Tree of Life was a Taxonomy , not a Phylogeny. Linnaeus gave humans the genus- species name “ Homo sapiens”.
Linnaeus classified Homo Sapiens based on skin color, but did _ not_ seem to include the pernicious element of white supremacy; that white skin signaled superiority in white people over peoples of color – moral , inherent , biological superiority of some type. It was evidently one Blumenbach ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_Blumenbach )who wrote a hierarchy of skin colors with the false idea of white supremacy .
However , this was in the context of European capitalism expanding in conquest of colonies and slave enterprises around the globe starting about 500 years ago. These “explorers” collected information on describing the bodies/phenotypes of different peoples they invaded ; and brought this back to Europe where these early biologists also collected it from them. Blumenbach’s white supremacy thesis “rationalized” the fact of the conquerors’ material and military superiority ( but moral inferiority )to those whom they conquered.
White supremacist colonialism and slavery were the “chief momenta” of the original (primitive) accumulation of the capital of Capitalism ( See era of capitalism on Scientific Cosmological Timeline handout)
“The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a theatre. It begins with the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain, assumes giant dimensions in England’s Anti-Jacobin War, and is still going on in the opium wars against China, &c.
The different momenta of primitive accumulation distribute themselves now, more or less in chronological order, particularly over Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and England. In England at the end of the 17th century, they arrive at a systematical combination, embracing the colonies, the national debt, the modern mode of taxation, and the protectionist system. These methods depend in part on brute force, e.g., the colonial system. But, they all employ the power of the State, the concentrated and organised force of society, to hasten, hot-house fashion, the process of transformation of the feudal mode of production into the capitalist mode, and to shorten the transition. Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one. It is itself Of the Christian colonial system, W. Howitt, a man who makes a speciality of Christianity, says:
“The barbarities and desperate outrages of the so-called Christian race, throughout every region of the world, and upon every people they have been able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those of any other race, however fierce, however untaught, and however reckless of mercy and of shame, in any age of the earth.” [4]
The history of the colonial administration of Holland — and Holland was the head capitalistic nation of the 17th century — “is one of the most extraordinary relations of treachery, bribery, massacre, and meanness” [5]
Nothing is more characteristic than their system of stealing men, to get slaves for Java. The men stealers were trained for this purpose. The thief, the interpreter, and the seller, were the chief agents in this trade, native princes the chief sellers. The young people stolen, were thrown into the secret dungeons of Celebes, until they were ready for sending to the slave-ships. “ Etc. in the same vein
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm; _Capital_ by Karl Marx
See also _The World and Africa_ , by W.E.B. Dubois
https://files.libcom.org/files/w-e-b-du-bois-the-world-and-africa-and-color-and-democracy.pdf
And _Guns, Germs and Steel_ by Jared Diamond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Franz Boas were leaders at debunking the concept of race as white supremacy . As was leading biologist , Richard Lewontin , C.Loring Brace
”A turning point in debates on race was marked in 1972 when, in a paper titled “The Apportionment of Human Diversity,” Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin showed that human populations, then held to be races, were far more genetically diverse than anyone had imagined.
In The Apportionment of Human Diversity" is a 1972 paper on racial categorisation by American evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin.[1] In it, Lewontin presented an analysis of genetic diversity amongst people from different conventionally-defined races. His main finding, that there is more genetic variation within these populations than between them,[2] is considered a landmark in the study of human genetic variation and contributed to the abandonment of race as a scientific concept.[3][4][5]
This argument has been cited as evidence that racial categories are biologically meaningless, and that behavioral differences between groups are not caused by genetic differences.[7] One example is the "Statement on 'Race'" published by the American Anthropological Association in 1998, which rejected the existence of races as unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups.[11]”
Youtube link on Lewontin’s thesis :
https://youtu.be/JvG1ylKhzoo
Preview YouTube video The Concept of Race with Richard Lewontin
The key pernicious concept is WHITE SUPREMACY.
(per·ni·cious having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way. “the pernicious effects of air pollution"; white supremacy’s harmful effect is often not subtle to People of Color)
European capitalist society not only divides the species homo sapiens into invalid biological sub-species based on skin color; but it perniciously puts those “races” into a hierarchy with white as falsely SUPERIOR in morality, spirit, soul, intelligence and other important characteristics.
Detroit’s late, great Black Mayor extraordinaire explains white supremacy in his autobiography _Hard stuff_ with a story he heard from his grandfather.
“When I was old enough to begin contemplating the dynamics of labor unions, it was one of my Grandpa Young's Alabama tales that illustrated for me the fundamental racial dilemma inherent in collective bargaining. The way we had it figured at Maben's barbershop, racial unity in organized labor was the only way for blacks or whites to gain any leverage in the workplace. For the white man, however, the notion of rubbin shoulders with black men, while to his economic advantage, required him to surrender his sacred myth of superiority---- as i clearly understood when my grandfather' told me the story o fthe honey dippers.
In the old South, honey dippers were the men who drove the shit wagons and had the job of cleaning outhouses, which was done by removing buckets that had been placed in the holes or where there were no buckets, dipping out the waste with cups. Often, honey dippers came in pairs, one black and one white, the black one doing the dipping and the white one driving the mule team. When the black dipper had a bucket of shit, he would hand it up to the white driver, wo would fill the wagon with buckets to be hauled out to the dump. I one instance, however --according to my grandfather --- the driver suddenly had a change of heart and said to the dipper, "Tom, get up here in this wagon. " So Tom sat in the wagon and the white guy proceeded to hand him the bucket. When Tom's curiosity, finally got the better of him and he asked why they had swapped jobs, the white fellow told him, "I ain't ginna have no n-word handing me no shit"
Here’s an analysis I wrote a few years ago:
Charles Brown: You see, in this Reaganite era a change we must make is in the media defaming those anti-racists speaking out against racism as "playing the race card". , "racebaiting "For decades, anti-racist speech has been censored by the Press through this sleight of hand.
We live in a "post-racial" society, supposedly. So, the word "racist" is never used ,except perhaps rarely to describe some person of color protesting _against_ racism. Things are so twisted that almost the only thing called "racism" by Big Brother Press are acts or statements of anti-racism. For corporate journalists, that is "playing the race card", "reverse racism".
In the infamous US Supreme Court case of _University of California vs Bakke_ , way back in 1978, affirmative action to attain racial equality, the only way equality can be achieved, was slandered as violating protections of racial equality that are provided in the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment to the US Constitution (wow, that's a mouthful; I'm a lawyer; smiles)This began more than 30 years of denying the existence of racism anymore.
The narrative has been that the racial playing field is now level , and we have achieve a "post-racial" or colorblind society , in no need of affirmative action remedies to overcome historically instituted inequality between whites and people's of color.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Yet , People of Color continue to rise ! We shall overcome these Barbarians , again and again until the Promised Land and Queendom of Freedom !
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