Certainly long before the Louisiana purchase, and other westward expansion. Russia is less of a prison of nations that the US is.

  • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It is. The first mention of the word “race” in any language was in the 16th century. Racialism is a system of human taxonomy that was invented post-enlightenment.

    Of course there was bigotry, xenophobia and ethnic persecution before that. Racism is a specific thing though, and it was invented at the advent of capitalism

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The first mention of the word “race” in any language was in the 16th century

      Samuel Alito has entered the chat

      • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Let me know how you figure people were discriminating by race before the concept of discrete color-based races was even invented. Putting people into boxes that hadn’t yet been defined or imagined.

          • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            The concept of racism predates racial categorization? Since race is a social construct (no discrete biological or genetic categories) how is that possible? Society had to construct it first before using it as a tool.

            Are you confusing xenophobia, bigotry, tribalism and ethnic persecution with racism? They are not the same thing, racism is a subset of the others and a new invention of modernity and the scientific community of the developing capitalist states