When is it going to end?

(Photo: Django Unchained)

The earliest formation of Race can be illustrated in the Caribbean during the late 17th century in Barbados. The Caribbean became home for many of the enslave people who were forcibly taken out of their motherland. The distinction of African persons mainly began with the simple differences of various skin tones. Stefaine Kennedy’s (Kennedy,2015) article explores the relationship and circumstances of those who resided in the Caribbean. According to Kennedy(2015) “Britons often perceived Blackness as a deformity, a deviation from the norm”(p.3). The Europeans views their pale white skin as a better fit which ultimately allowed them to obtain a higher social  status than those of darker pigmentation. Europeans perspective towards Africans reached another dimension by validating their inferiority through biblical context. “They referred to blackness as an ‘accidental imperfection,’ and speculated that at final judgment blacks would become white, their deformity to be mercifully fixed by God”(Kennedy,2015,p.3) Some often claimed that the darkness of African skin stemmed from a religious curse that dated back to the times of Abraham. Europeans  saw their Christianity as means of salvation for devilish African people. 

Demetri D. Debe and Russell R. Menard (Debe,Menard,2011) article analyzes the legislative actions which further ensured the wide margin of equality to Africans. The laws that developed in the Caribbean not only affected the enslave within that area but also spread into the American colonies. They state “Barbados code…were used not merely to punish the escapee or the unlawful possession of another planter’s slaves”(Debe,Menard,2011,p.8). The slave codes established within Barbados set the harsh tone for the treatment of slaves. The enslave ultimately lacked the basic rights by allowing essentially everyone to have a stake in the enforcement of slave code. According to Debe,and Menard(2011) …“establish formally that all slaves were slaves for life”(p.9).  The precedent that set the standard for the living conditions of the enslave held one forever. The Enslave had no potential in gaining  self value  or worth.Europeans even perceived African customs such as their religious practices, clothing and political organization to be placed lower on the scale of humanity. Europeans saw every aspect of the African civilization as being lower than their owns which only raised their justification of slavery even higher. 

I have always understood race as being what you are. This means that whatever country or territory that either you personally or your mother, father, and grandparents originated from .These early lessons of race have impacted my views of race drastically. The chapter Creating a Bi-Racial society opened my eyes to the institutional disadvantages that has been implemented since 1661 to people of color. These disadvantages and belittlement of ones African self since the 17th century has undoubtedly being carried throughout the next four centuries to come. The idea of race persist mainly because one remains to focus of the difference rather than the similarities. Black Lives Matter has currently shed light on racial injustice which solely has been affecting the same people of color. The recent police killing of African Americans and the more than few convictions continuously illustrate the theme of inequality. Those who have always being higher on the social ladder benefits from dividing racial groups with the lower remains oppressed.

Work Cite 

Debe, D. D., & Menard, R. R. (2011). The Transition to African Slavery in Maryland: A Note on the Barbados Connection. 

Slavery & Abolition, 32(1), 129-141.

Kennedy, S. (2015). ‘Let them be young and stoutly set in limbs’: race, labor, and disability in the British Atlantic World. Social Identities, 21(1), 37-52.