Race Today

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Katherine Ochy

Dr Raja Swamy

ANTH 1023

April 24th, 2013.

Race and how it shaped Today’s World

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes race as “a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics”. Common characteristics make people more comfortable with each other. One is more easily solace with other people who share an interest or a habit with us. Scientists use the term to classify people who have the same traits but, people, use the word in a more naïve way. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular case”. How is racism and race different but still manage to control the world we live in?

Describing a group of people that had lived in a same place was consider as a race. In colonialism, Columbus classified people from America as an “indian race”. They didn’t

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look like him, they were different to him. Even before, Marco Polo called the Persians as a Persian race, they were different from him. When the Spanish conquered America they realized their weapons were stronger than the ones Indians had. The conquistadores thought they were stronger, smarter and more “civilized” than the Indians. They felt superior, so they imposed their religion, cultures and traditions to them. When they conquered other places around the globe, they did the same thing. Because their race was “better”.

Soon, race affected the economy and agriculture of a place. Commons were a group of people from a region who shared common resources such as water, land and crops. During colonialism, these common places were privatized. People got kicked out of their lands having no places to go. Race determined who would work in the new farms, farmers would work for the government now. Colonials imposed the prices of the...