Today, on the traditional Sunday lunches at my grandma’s, Mariano, the husband of my father’s sister, recounted a very interesting anecdote. He was 19 years old and was eating, with a group of friends, at the cafeteria of the University of Desto in Bilbao. Suddenly, a student told him: “We bring culture and civilization to those American Indians in loincloths." My uncle jumped of his seat and responded furiously: “Wearing loincloths is not as wrong as invading land of others and destroying two entire civilizations. The empire of the Incas and Aztecs were very advanced, even the Mayas had understood concepts, such as the ‘zero one’, long before than the Europeans.”
He felt attacked, and after a long debate, many Spaniards supported the posture of my uncle. Later on, he gave a talk explaining the development and legacies of the Andean culture.
This might’ve been one of the many fables of Mariano, whom we tease because he delights us with new and amazing stories on each meal- one time he insisted that a dragon had appeared in front of him. But this anecdote left me thinking on the influence of racism in the world and inspired me to write this blog post about that.
The attitude of the student was not only Eurocentric, but also racist. The Indian is the barbarian, the uneducated and the uncivilized; the white is the elegant, the cult, the superior; this idea, which was the core of my uncle’s anger, was imposed in colonial times and remained during the Viceroyalty. Unfortunately, it continues thriving until today.
Herodotus said that man imagine their gods just like them. See, the famous Babylonian goddess of love, Astarte, is known to be a brunette, while the Greeks illustrated Aphrodite as a blonde.
What color was the skin of Christ and the Virgin Mary? The Son of God, according to some studies, was dark colored. As I discussed this topic with my father, he told me that a Spanish Mariologist was invited long ago to the National Club to talk about the Virgin Mary. He said she was black. The spectators made a scandal. They protested for the “impertinence” of the speaker. European paintings have typically shown Christ and Virgin Mary as white. Over time, however, the situation has been changing; nowadays, our artists portray Jesus as a brown skinned boy.
We can find, in Voltaire’s Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations, a deplorable affirmation on Africans: “And one could say that if their intelligence is not of another species than ours, then it is greatly inferior. They are not capable of paying much attention; they mingle very little, and they do not appear to be made either for the advantages or the abuses of our philosophy.” This is a proof that Voltaire, a great thinker, was racist; conditioned and alienated to the racial beliefs of his time. A similar behavior is found in Plato and Aristotle, since both justified slavery as being something natural.
There are lots of texts that try to justify racism. There is Henri de Boulainvilliers, in the Middle Ages, with his theory of "two races". Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Alfred Rosenberg are anti-semitic authors of stupid theories, ideas that many people continue to follow. We, Peruvians, apparently idolize these stupid thoughts. The worst thing is that we actually apply them; hence we are even more stupid. There are no superior or inferior races. A substance called melanin determines the color of our skin.
We must comprehend and understand that the benefit of preserving a varied geography, is having social diversity. If we manage to do so, some day we will not be called by the color of our skin, but by our own name. Indeed, for this to happen we must undertake a huge ethical revolution, the most important of all: the definite one.
He felt attacked, and after a long debate, many Spaniards supported the posture of my uncle. Later on, he gave a talk explaining the development and legacies of the Andean culture.
This might’ve been one of the many fables of Mariano, whom we tease because he delights us with new and amazing stories on each meal- one time he insisted that a dragon had appeared in front of him. But this anecdote left me thinking on the influence of racism in the world and inspired me to write this blog post about that.
The attitude of the student was not only Eurocentric, but also racist. The Indian is the barbarian, the uneducated and the uncivilized; the white is the elegant, the cult, the superior; this idea, which was the core of my uncle’s anger, was imposed in colonial times and remained during the Viceroyalty. Unfortunately, it continues thriving until today.
Herodotus said that man imagine their gods just like them. See, the famous Babylonian goddess of love, Astarte, is known to be a brunette, while the Greeks illustrated Aphrodite as a blonde.
What color was the skin of Christ and the Virgin Mary? The Son of God, according to some studies, was dark colored. As I discussed this topic with my father, he told me that a Spanish Mariologist was invited long ago to the National Club to talk about the Virgin Mary. He said she was black. The spectators made a scandal. They protested for the “impertinence” of the speaker. European paintings have typically shown Christ and Virgin Mary as white. Over time, however, the situation has been changing; nowadays, our artists portray Jesus as a brown skinned boy.
We can find, in Voltaire’s Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations, a deplorable affirmation on Africans: “And one could say that if their intelligence is not of another species than ours, then it is greatly inferior. They are not capable of paying much attention; they mingle very little, and they do not appear to be made either for the advantages or the abuses of our philosophy.” This is a proof that Voltaire, a great thinker, was racist; conditioned and alienated to the racial beliefs of his time. A similar behavior is found in Plato and Aristotle, since both justified slavery as being something natural.
There are lots of texts that try to justify racism. There is Henri de Boulainvilliers, in the Middle Ages, with his theory of "two races". Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Alfred Rosenberg are anti-semitic authors of stupid theories, ideas that many people continue to follow. We, Peruvians, apparently idolize these stupid thoughts. The worst thing is that we actually apply them; hence we are even more stupid. There are no superior or inferior races. A substance called melanin determines the color of our skin.
We must comprehend and understand that the benefit of preserving a varied geography, is having social diversity. If we manage to do so, some day we will not be called by the color of our skin, but by our own name. Indeed, for this to happen we must undertake a huge ethical revolution, the most important of all: the definite one.