From what I understand the modern concept of race arose during the age of colonialism, but before that time, was there any documented accounts of racism against black people by white people?

  • RollOfTape [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    And I think the race part was a lot more tied to the language too, right? I don’t think they cared too much about melanin content if you spoke perfect Greek and knew all the customs and worshiped the correct pantheon etc.

    Even today you can tell European nationals apart by their looks. I guess ancient racism wasn't reduced to skin tones, but I doubt it was solely about language/culture.

    • 01100011101001111100 [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Oh I agree I bet they could guess someone wasn't born in Greece, but I think since borders were pretty fuzzy then and people mixed much more freely, I bet people were used to seeing a bunch of differences but then being like "oh shit, I thought you were Scythian at first! How's it hanging?" after hearing them speak Greek. It's so weird from our pov because race is such an important thing after centuries of colonialism, I'm trying to wrap my head around a time when borders and nations didn't have strong borders, there was no history of racialized slavery, etc.

      Apparently, Aristotle thought most barbarians had slave-souls and slave-bodies, but they didn't always match. So presumably, regular ancient people probably could tell someone was a non-Greek probably by some phenotypical differences but that non-Greek status was erased if they had Greek culture and language.

        • overeee [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I would go to whatever bathhouse they molested the little boys in and blow it up. Imagine human progress without anymore Greek philosopher pedos.