LEAP 3050 Lecture 2: Race The Power of an Illusion

• School: University of Utah
• Department: LEAP Program
• Course: LEAP 3050
• Professor: Carolan Ownby

Document Summary

Race is the way in which people assign meaning to how another human look. It is believed that the differences are fundamental when they, in fact, evolve as they are constructed by society in order to furthers political and economic goals. The idea of being separated by skin color was created over the course of four centuries. Thomas jefferson was said to be the first person to create a theory of race in america. At first, the divide was between christians and non-christians in the colonial america. The economic status and religion of a person were more important than skin color. Once they figured out that african americans were capable of easy and cheap labor, they began interchanging christian with white. after this, impoverished europeans gained more rights as lower class became replaced with the black population. By 1781 slavery was so widespread that white americans became convinced that slavery was the natural status of black americans.