{"id":3428,"date":"2019-11-19T03:06:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T07:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=3428"},"modified":"2022-03-11T11:38:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:38:50","slug":"history-of-racism-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-racism-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Racism in America: Its Roots May Not Be Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the history of racism in America? Where did it start?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of racism in America starts with the European sugar plantations there. Europeans didn’t want to pay for labor since this would have made the sugar too expensive to buy back on the continent, and, by a historical accident, they went to Africa for their unpaid labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll look at the early history of racism in America, from the first sugar plantations to discrimination in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

History of Racism in America<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The history of racism in America starts with the sugar plantations. When Europeans developed large sugar plantations in America, Europeans started eating more and more sugar. The demand for sugar in Europe skyrocketed. But extracting sugar was labor-intensive, and not many paid workers wanted to spend their days under a hot sun in malaria-infested fields. They demanded a high payment. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But increasing worker wages meant increasing the cost of sugar, which would have made it too expensive for most Europeans. So the plantation owners got rid of payment altogether and exchanged contract laborers for slaves. This made sugar cheaper, and it also made it a profitable business to have a share in. In the 18th century, investments in the slave trade could yield 6% per year.
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The Atlantic slave trade wasn\u2019t necessarily the result of racism.<\/strong> People who owned plantations and Europeans who bought stock lived far from the plantations and never thought much about the slaves. It was the money in their pockets that kept the slave trade going, igniting the history of discrimination in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Hierarchies Are Formed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The history of racism in the United States depends on hierarchies. Imagined societies are generally propped up by three elements: a historical accident, the fear of pollution, and the vicious cycle of discrimination.
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Historical Accident: <\/strong>The roots of prejudicial hierarchies often lie in a random occurrence in history rather than biological differences. 
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Fear of Pollution: <\/strong>Humans are biologically programmed to feel repulsed by people and animals that might carry disease. This is a survival instinct<\/a>. But although the fear is biologically-based, its historical manipulation and exploitation is based in fiction. If you want to ostracize a group (such as Jews, gays, blacks, or women), tell your society that they\u2019re polluted and could contaminate you if you interact with them.
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Vicious Cycle of Discrimination: <\/strong>Once a random historical event that benefits one group and discriminates against another occurs, that hierarchy is perpetuated by the people who benefit from it. This reinforces the prejudices used to justify the system. These prejudices, in turn, help maintain the system, and the cycle continues.
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Let\u2019s look at how these three elements perpetuate discrimination in the history of racism in America.
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Example: Racial Discrimination in America<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Historical Accident <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As we’ve discussed, the history of racism in America starts with a historical accident. One of the primary sources of America\u2019s racial hierarchy<\/a> is the slave trade of the 16th through 18th centuries. In a sense, it was a historical accident that Europeans imported to America millions of slaves from the African continent rather than Europe or Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n