THIS IS THE STANDARD VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF RACE HERE DK COMMENTER ROY BAKOS

"...The idea of race, especially and starting with the idea of "whiteness," is indeed a social construct which, in the West, primarily arose along with Colonialism as a means to justify the enslavement and abuse of conquered peoples. The tern was used in law and pseudo-science to create the idea of a "white race" that was superior to all others and this justified European conquest and domination...." RB

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

A TURNING POINT GREAT STUFF

"...Thus it is well-established, for anyone who wants to find out, that whites did not invent black African slavery—they took advantage of it. Slavery was a thriving institution in much of Africa (and the Middle East) when white traders entered the market in the 16^thcentury and began bringing slaves across the Atlantic. Before the twentieth century any atrocities perpetrated by European elites could easily be matched by counterparts in other parts of the world, and the unprecedented crimes of whites in the twentieth century, I would argue, can be put down only to superior technology, not superior wickedness. The unpleasant truth we must confront about human beings has nothing to do with race: it is simply that power corrupts. Nor does the behavior of female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi suggest that female leadership will be immune from this chronic disease either. There is no reason to suppose that a black or female American President will be more likely to resist the temptation of power (especially on the international scene) than any previous incumbent—and if they are more restrained, it will be because of individual qualities having nothing to do with race or gender...." DK 

Restraint, I would suggest, however, in the sense used here, is quintessentially a Western Civilizational  quality, a quality not just of the old aristocracy or nobility, and has to do with both race religion and gender.