But Hume and Kant both wrote about how Africans were inferior to whites, arguing on polygenic bases (that different regional/national peoples were permanently hierarchically organized by intelligence, etc). (On National Characters, Hume, 1754) (On the Different Races of Man, Kant, 1777)
A scientific basis for racism as a concept was also (not only but also) championed by Thomas Jefferson who called upon scientists to come up with a scientific reason for why black etc people were inferior to whites.
To our reproach it must be said, that though for a century and a half we have had under our eyes the races of black and of red men, they have never yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history. I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.
But Hume and Kant both wrote about how Africans were inferior to whites, arguing on polygenic bases (that different regional/national peoples were permanently hierarchically organized by intelligence, etc). (On National Characters, Hume, 1754) (On the Different Races of Man, Kant, 1777)
A scientific basis for racism as a concept was also (not only but also) championed by Thomas Jefferson who called upon scientists to come up with a scientific reason for why black etc people were inferior to whites.
Anyway, to prevent this from getting too off topic, check out Naomi Zack's Philosophy of Science and Race for how the social construct of race and attempted scientific explanations intersect. ( chapter 1 )
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He talks about it in his Notes on the State of Virginia