#Thoughtprovoking Racism is one of those subjects where people tread lightly to not sound like they are offending anyone based on their race or skin coloration. A lot of events in history have led to the result that racism is bad for society and the overall mental health of most people. As you might’ve guessed by now, racism has been present in the world for as long as we recount, but it hasn’t always been the same though. Here are a few types of racism that have existed and still exist in the world we live in.

Scientific Racism refers to racism based on “scientific” evidence. Back in the 18th century, it was commonly believed that people of different origins had less worth than those born in Europe. The term was widely used in discussions of morality and ethics and it was mainly used to explain the physical differences that existed between people of different skin colors or even body shapes. Some may consider these claims nonsense now, but back in the day this was the greatest and most believable answer to the question that God had made the Europeans superior to any other race and thus they should be treated that way while all the “cannon fodder” was to be their underlings and servants. As you can tell, these claims were defended by some of the scientists of the time, with some claiming that people of African origin were the intermediate step between monkeys and modern man thus making them less intelligent. Many other ideas and claims were made based on papers published by renowned scientists of the time such as Herbert Spencer or even Charles Darwin, who never agreed with these pretentious claims and made sure to change the way people think of each other, where the term was preferred to be used alongside the theory “Survival of the fittest” meaning that people of these less advanced races were not fit to live in the same level as the more advanced and stronger race. Scientific racism doesn’t stop at just skin color though, it touches on every part of human physiognomy to make the differences apparent to the ignorant peasant to whom these ideas may have been conveyed at the time. It became most prominent in the 1930s where many world powers would not acknowledge people of other origins even though they were as productive as normal citizens.

Eugenics is a type of study that deals with how genes are passed down from one generation to another. As the name would suggest, the main goal of eugenics is to get a better grasp of how genes are responsible for the evolution of a species and the history of our ancestors. You may be asking yourself at the moment “What does this have to do with racism though?” and the answer to your question is this: Back in the 1930s with the ever-growing strength of Germany under its new prime minister, Adolf Hitler, scientists started to ask the question “How are races different from one another and how we can turn them into Aryans?”.These racist ideologies continued to grow more and more under the propaganda of Nazi Germany, resulting in the creation of new experiments which were more like torture rather than for scientific research. It was widely believed that the pureblooded Aryans were the most dominant and perfect species and they needed to eradicate all the other ones. Many western scientists tried to counter these claims but to no avail. The understanding of eugenics was that people of Aryan blood possessed the most abilities and intelligence whereas races like the Africans or jews were half-blooded and tainted, making them their main rivals. Experiments were performed to convert people of dark complexion to white people and even to have power over the birth cycle of pregnancies. They were cruel and unrelenting in their quest to bring about “change” and “evolution” to these impure races. These ideologies sparked the most horrific and unforgettable events in human history with the start of World War II. Hereditary traits made the difference between life and death and whoever wasn’t on their side would be met with the latter.

Alongside all the ridicule and inequality these claims would bring to people of different races, some businessmen sought out the possibility of making money by taunting and making more apparent the differences of individuals with deficits or even health problems. These shows were common throughout the whole world, where people would laugh and make fun of other people without any insight or even empathy towards the other's feelings or thoughts. Basing their “business” on the belief that their goal was not to spread misinformation or even to offend people, these circus owners would often buy slaves and other people with disabilities to make the most out of them without any reward or care, working them to the bone and ditching them when they were no longer useful. They would defend themselves under the pretense that their work sparked curiosity and made people more aware of other races and those with disabilities, when in fact they were only tools to them, a useful and convenient means of lining their own pockets, profiting out of other people’s hardships. A great example of these businessmen would be P.T Barnum. Barnum made a fortune by buying and deceiving clients with fake claims of having found long-lost species which were thought to be extinct, forcing those with appearance and mental trouble to be part of his circus, in which you would find “the strangest” creatures.

After all of these events and horrific human rights violations, the world came to its senses in the 1960s with the many reforms and mandates that protected people of other races just as much as those who were born there. Our society has come a long way since then and it’s no surprise that we will keep correcting and improving on our mistakes.