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RACISM
How "Purity of Blood" Became a Gold Standard for Race in America
Social structures created and maintained a racial hierarchy
Race is a social construct, but we rarely discuss its construction. Biologically speaking, all people belong to the same species, homo sapiens. So, when we talk about race, we're discussing the idea that groups of people share unique physical and cultural characteristics, but there's nothing benign about the concept. For example, Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, constructed the idea of race from a white-centered perspective so that any deviation from Europeans was portrayed negatively.
For example, skin color, hair color and form, posture, behavior, clothing, and style of government were the factors Linneaus depicted in a series of papers, suggesting Africanus people were "lazy, sluggish, neglectful," and "governed by choice." In contrast, European people were muscular, wise, inventors, and "governed by rites." White scientists developed race as a social construct, not to simply describe differences amongst groups of people but to justify white privilege by diminishing others. The myth of white supremacy spread through legal and religious pronouncements.
On February 7, 1776, months before America's founding, Doña Margarita Wiltz pledged her "purity of…
