Race Vs Religion
Over history various methods have been used to justify discrimination. Although religion and race were both successful in instituting social hierarchies, the implications of their characterizations were quite different. Though similar in their origins, the transition from religion to race as the basis for discrimination depicts a transition from a focus on changeable characteristics to impermeable differences to support the institution of segregated communities. While religious stratification was often mutable, hierarchies based on race were of a more permanent nature, as illustrated by the use of both methods of discrimination on Jewish and African nations. Both religious and racial hierarchies were instituted to maintain social stratification because of the dominant intellectual beliefs of the time. This is extremely evident in the way Jews and Blacks continued to be oppressed with only the thought behind their oppression being changed. Doctrine or ideology was used to justify or rationalize a range of policies, depending on the circumstances and aims of the racializing group (Fredrickson, 11). Consequently the strength of the Church, and the birth of the Enlightenment, marked the use of religion and race, respectively, to . . .
The consequences of racial stratification, however, were quite different. Analysis of the treatment of both Jewish and African populations throughout history depicts apparent similarities and differences between the use of religion and race as methods of discrimination. Examples of these differences are evident in the history of both African and Jewish populations. institute social hierarchies in breast of economic and political change. In the words of George Mosse, European racism originates in the Enlightenment, when the “structure of racial thought was consolidated and determined for the next one and three-quarter centuries” (Endelman, 148). “Jews were alien, demonic creatures, subhuman and superhuman at the same time, who threatened “Aryans” with racial corruption and with profound, almost inexpressible terror (Berger, 145). Blacks became seen as naturally inferior and a form of racial damnism emerged creating a firmer foundation of stratification based on genetic differences in races (Fredrickson, 2002 April 22). Stratification was associated more with the religion than the actual person, and as result was quite mobile. German nationalism reinforced the biological basis of race and therefore strengthened their belief in the inferiority of the Jews (Naimark, 2002 May 1). As a result Europeans used religion to characterize Africans as savages because of their failure to adhere to European standards of civilization. Since slavery was illegal in most societies, religion was used to justify its prevalence amongst Christian countries. Placement in a racially based hierarchy, however, was non-transferable. “Law in the seventeenth century regarded slavery as licit and as a proper condition for those who could be defined as captives of war, particularly if they happened to be heathens” (Fredrickson, 185). When Europeans justified their superiority with religion, Christians followed their calling to actively convert both cultures to the Christian faith. Racism meant an “explicit ideology based on the putative scientific truth that population groups distinguishable from each other in physical appearance or ancestry were different and unequal in genetically determined mental and behavioral capabilities” (Fredrickson, 11).
Common topics in this essay:
Church Christian, Adam Eve, Holocaust Lagumuir, Jewish African, Jews Naimark, Mosse European, , Jews Blacks, Christianity Jews, Morton Racism, religion race, 2002 april, religious based, political change, fredrickson 2002, racially based, fredrickson 2002 april, based discrimination, permanent nature, economic and/or political, racial stratification, methods discrimination, based race permanent, hierarchies based race, 2002 april 22, |
Acceptance Essays
