Most academics believe that racism emerged during transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. Therefore, there is an agreement that discrimination based on skin color is largely a modern invention. It has been noted that the word race is not mentioned in original versions of the bible or other ancient writings from Greek anthropologists and historians. Negations according to shades of skin color began during the transatlantic slavery and colonialism because Europeans wanted to rank themselves over others as people who had broader humanity to justify their colonial activities.
According to Jared Diamond, dominance of white people over black people was largely propagated by geographic factors in Europe. The European climate was stable, which encouraged farming and the region could have varieties of plants and animals to form reliable food bases. This created more stable communities, governments, armies and explorers that sought to spread their culture all over the world. However, some places on Earth seem to reason conversely, for instance the Baku people in New Guinea. In this country, since the majority of people are black, light-skinned people are looked down on (Saulny, 2002).
Racism has had mixed impacts on people. Some people are demonizing others because of their skin color, to justify or enhance their status by nationality or religion. Moreover, skin color has remained a major point of conflicts in literature and arts by various people in forums. In some cases, lightness of the skin has been a compelling factor for one to prove his level of superiority. Many people, especially those with dark skins have internalized racism by bleaching their skins in an attempt to reach the superiority. In this regard, apart from Michael Jackson, even other African people have begun internalizing racism by coating their skins with homemade mixtures of bleach and lye (Saulny, 2002).
Reference
Saulny, S. (2002).The Nation; And There Was Light, and It Was Good? . New York Times.
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