From: Witness For Peace Date: 30 Jan 92 07:54 PST Subject: WFP Myth of the Month: Feb 92 Message-ID: <1563600119@igc.org> Lines: 312 Status: RO Witness for Peace 1492-1992 Expose the Myths: Calling for a Just World Order Myth of the Month--February 1992: Racism Myth: The domination of the New World by European colonists and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas was the natural result of the inherent superiority of the white race over indigenous races. Today Europe and European-derived societies maintain their domination over people of color because of their intellectual superiority and their work ethic. Response: The ideology of racism is a distinctly European construct brought to the "New World" by Columbus and his followers to justify the desire of the colonists to pillage and plunder the wealth of the indigenous people of the Americas. The concept that the humanity and culture of non-white people is less than that of white-Europeans because of physical characteristics and ancestry--and the actions which reinforce that concept--continue to be the key factors in the socio-economic relationship between predominately white-western nations and the mostly non-white nations of the developing world. The Americas and Europe Before 1492: Before the arrival of Columbus, the various indigenous societies in the Americas saw themselves as different from each other, but they had no concept of "race" as we know it today. Because of the homogenous racial make-up of the indigenous populations at the time of Columbus' arrival, the primary distinctions between indigenous peoples of the Americas were attributable to culture, population size, religious practices, and geography rather than racial characteristics. The different indigenous societies which came into contact with one another might have at some point acknowledged their similar physical characteristics; but it is important to note that there is no record in the writings or oral history of indigenous Americans of any term defining the concept of "race" as it came to be understood with the arrival of the Europeans. Even if on some level the indigenous peoples perceived of themselves as a distinct race, it was not until the invasion of the Europeans that the concept of race became the primary factor in determining the worth of a human being. While Europe in 1492 was also largely a homogenous society distinctions were made between Europeans based primarily on geography, language, religion and wealth. Over the course of a couple hundred years, the Europeans had developed the concept of "race" or "purity of blood" as a way to maintain the socio-economic status quo. As Europeans came into contact with people from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the Europeans extended the concept of race to distinguish differences in color and religion--portraying European whiteness as superior and using race to justify a privileged status for themselves. Race and the Purity of Blood The first recorded use of the word "race" appears to be among the upper class French in the 13th century and referred primarily to one's blood line or descent from a house of nobility. This distinction apparently was used as a means of protecting the hierarchy and their privileges from the egalitarian impulses of the European peasantry. In 15th-century Spain, a major preoccupation among the privileged classes was their attempt to expel the Moors, who had invaded Spanish territory 200 years earlier. The Spanish came to use race as a way of excluding their Moorish enemies, who were originally deemed "impure" because of their belief in Islam, an "unholy religion." During the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the 15th century, the ruling classes and the Church seized upon the concept of the "purity of blood" to persecute Moors and Jews who had not converted to Christianity, and particularly to exclude their descendants from any "positions of confidence and social preeminence" in Spain. This action allowed entire generations, who through intermarriage were now more Spanish than Moor, to be legally stripped of their possessions. The Spanish state, which in Spain meant the Church and the ruling classes, then "reclaimed" those possessions. In latter stages of the Spanish Inquisition the "purity of blood" concept shifted from a religious to a decidedly racial cast when the Inquisition decreed that Moors, Jews and their descendants were inherently, naturally and forever inferior because of the "stained" blood of their antecedents--whether or not they converted their souls to Christianity. By the time of Columbus' voyage in 1492, racism had gripped Europe to a high degree. For instance, access to the Americas was forbidden to "Moors, Jews, or their sons, or the sons of Gypsies or of a reconciled heretic or son or grandson of anyone who has been burned or condemned for heretical baseness and apostasy through masculine or the feminine line...." That is, all non-white Europeans. The Conquest: 1492: ...should your Majesties command it, all the inhabitants could be taken away to Castile (Spain), or made slaves on the island. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. --Christopher Columbus While Columbus' voyage to the Americas is still primarily referred to as "The Discovery," it was and continues to be viewed in Spain and most of Latin America as "The Conquest." The primary purpose of Columbus' voyage was to find riches for Spain. Upon his arrival in the Americas it became necessary to create a context and a justification for the exploitation necessary to steal the wealth of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The answer was found by extending the concept of "purity of blood" to include the concept of racial superiority. This allowed the Europeans to justify the conquest and destruction of the indigenous populations of the Americas. Although before Columbus some Indians took slaves from the tribes they defeated in war, the concept of blood or racial inferiority allowed the Europeans to force hereditary slavery upon the indigenous peoples, providing for a steady supply of slaves and generations of misery. The Ideology of Racism For the conquest to systematically continue after the invasion, it was necessary for European-whites to create a new social order with them at the top. For whites to be on top, it became necessary to (1) objectify Indians and eliminate all cultural distinctions between the indigenous populations; (2) portray the indigenous populations and their offspring as inherently inferior; and (3) portray the offspring of European and Indian unions as inferior. After the indigenous populations were decimated by murder and disease, the European colonists had to find replacement slaves to continue their exploitation of the Americas. In 1498, the European explorer Vasco Da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and "discovered" the solution to the need for additional laborers in the Americas: African slaves. The African Slave Trade Before, during and after their forced shipment to the Americas, Africans were also subjected to the racist ideology of the European conquerors and their insistence that all non-white people were inherently inferior. Like the indigenous "Indians," the Africans were also deemed impure and their offspring were subjected to hereditary slavery. The Europeans sought to make sure that the descendants of Africans, like the descendants of indigenous Americans, would forever be excluded from experiencing the rights of white Europeans. They achieved this partly by creating a legal structure which justified the enslavement of Africans. Besides justifying rape, plunder and the perpetuation of slavery, the concept of European-white racial superiority and Indian/African racial inferiority was also intended to psycho-logically unite the oppressors through their sense of common identity, and inversely to demoralize the indigenous and African populations through a belief in their own inferiority. Racism and the "New World Order": In his 1991 State of the Union Address, President Bush called for a "new world order" based on nations working toward a world based on "peace, security and the rule of law." To many non-white nations it sounded very much like a codification of the status quo. Nowhere in his speech did he mention "justice" or inequality and ideological racism which impacts non-white people everywhere. The basic concept of racial superiority that was brought from Europe to the Americas undergirds the continuing legacy of racism today. Western nations continue to approach international relations by either initiating or supporting policies based on the concept that indigenous peoples and their descendants are inherently inferior to European-whites, and therefore have no right to independently determine their own systems of governance or control the natural resources in their habitat. Predominately white Western nations continue to construct policies wherein the primary purpose of non-white people is to provide the labor to produce the wealth for Western nations. It is the continued adherence to the belief in white racial superiority and the inferiority of people of color that continues to justify the military, political, and economic exploitation of non-white societies in Central America, South America, Asia, Africa and elsewhere. The "right" of Western nations to control the resources in developing countries, such as oil in the Middle East, and to control huge tracts of land, historically inhabited by non-white people, for the purpose of producing export crops (regardless of what the indigenous people need) is a direct legacy of the racist policies set in motion in 1492. The continuation of racism allows the Western nations to justify ignoring the abject disease, poverty and famine which continues to ravage the developing world as well as Third World communities within Western nations. The perpetuation of racist ideology helps explain the indiscriminate testing and use of weapons of mass destruction on indigenous peoples in developing countries, the selling of potentially harmful chemical products (which have been banned in Western countries) to developing countries, as well as the dumping of toxic waste in Third World communities here and abroad. (See August 1992 Myth of the Month.) Until these concerns are addressed and solved, President Bush's "new world order" simply rubber-stamps the perpetuation of racism that began with Columbus. Examples: * When Columbus arrived on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) in 1492, it is estimated that he encountered 1.5 million "Indians." By 1519, through murder, torture, suicide and disease, the indigenous population had been reduced to 500 individuals. * When Columbus arrived in the Americas there was a population of over 100 million indigenous people throughout the continent. Today, there are only 35 million. * At the founding of the United States of America, black people were designated to only be 3/5th human. * As a result of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas, Brazil now has the largest numbers of blacks outside of Africa. Today, of the 13 million children living in poverty on the streets of Brazil, over half are black. * Native Americans living on reservations in the United States have higher rates of unemployment, suicide, alcoholism and diabetes than any single group in the U.S. * Black and Hispanic young men are unemployed at more that 2-3 times the rate of white young men in the U.S. * Non-white communities in the U.S. and abroad are the main dumping grounds for hazardous chemical toxic wastes (see August 1992 Myth of the Month). * To maintain their control over governments and natural resources, western industrialized nations continue to militarily attack people of color throughout the world (for example Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Persian Gulf). There are many positive examples that demonstrate how people of color rebelled against the racism of the European invaders and how they continue to rebel against racism today. From the uprising of the Aztecs against the conquistadors, to the 200-year-old struggle of Native Americans against the "westward expansion" of European colonists and the U.S. government, to the organizing and rebellion of African American slaves, to the civil rights movement and the current willingness of the people of Palestine, South Africa and Central America to demand their freedom. These are all examples which serve to emphasize that no matter how pervasive and insidious racism seems to be, it will not stand, that truth crushed to the earth will rise again. Calling for a Just World Order: We covenant together to use the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the invasion of the Americas, not for glorification, but for confession, reparation and repentance for the brutal genocide and exploitation of indigenous people; we covenant to join actively in the land rights struggles of indigenous people as they struggle against racist institutions and policies which rape the land and resources; we covenant to fight against the violence of racism done to people in the first world context. --World Council of Churches, 1990 To work for a just world order: * Sponsor an "Undoing Racism" workshop in your community. * Research the issues of people of color in your community. Meet with groups to learn what allies can do. * Educate yourself about other cultures by joining a Witness for Peace delegation to Central America (see enclosed delegation schedule). * Write letters-to-the-editor to expose racist myths and depictions of people of color, especially as related to the quincentenary. * In conjunction with local African and Native American groups, organize an event for Black History Month (February) to expose the myths of slavery. Discussion Questions: 1. What examples of racism exist in your community? 2. How can you and the members of your community, synagogue, or church work to challenge racism locally? How might you do this nationally or internationally? 3. How and why were Africans brought to the Americas? 4. Do you think there is a relationship between Spain's use of its armed forces to subjugate the people of the Americas in 1492 and the use of U.S. armed forces in Central America throughout the 20th century? Resources: Blacks, Indigenous People and the Churches: 1992 Ending the Pain Beginning the Hope, Background paper for Continental Consultation on Racism in the Americas, Dr. Jeane Sindab, World Council of Churches Programme to Combat Racism: 1990. Report on the Americas: Inventing America 1492-1992, North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA): February 1991. Report on the Americas: The Conquest of Nature 1492-1992, North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA): September 1991 We Speak For Ourselves: Social Justice Race and Environment, Panos Institute: 1991. 500 Years, Latin American Council of Churches: August, 1991.