Racism and the ideology of a race being better than the other has been around for as long as we can remember. The most prominent ideas of racism came from the triangular trade (Columbian Exchange). During this trade route, Africans were being exported from their country into the Americas. Africans were used as slaves to do whatever the masters wanted. I believe this started the ideology that light-skinned Europeans were superior to dark-skinned Africans.

It seemed as if any dark-skinned person would be persecuted in the Americas. Native Americans were also treated poorly by the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries. Even though they pledged to spread Christianity, enslaving and forcing Native Americans to give up their heritage does not meet the words of Jesus Christ. The terms of “race”, “white”, and “slave” started to rise during this time period of the 1500s-1600s. The idea that Europeans were superior was brought up during the time period of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Through the new beliefs that people were governed by natural laws and rights, “whites” were inherently smarter than darker-skinned people. With Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution, Europeans furthered the notion that they were superior to everyone else. The ideology of Social Darwinism took place at the end of the 1800s, which led Europeans to believe that only the strongest nations and people can survive. Those who were not worthy were forced to recede.

“We must strive to learn from our past mistakes, in order to create a better future.”

–George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

Although dark-skinned people such as the Africans have been attacked and suppressed since the 16th century, this also applied towards Asians as well. Through a historical comic book called They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, I was able to learn about the experiences of George and his family during the time of Japanese internment camps. The Japanese were facing prejudice due to the recent Pearl Harbor bombings, Americans believed that the Japanese living in the United States were spies. To deal with the fear of the people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed Japanese Americans into internment camps where many Japanese were crammed into makeshift buildings or sheds that were turned into homes. To be considered alien to the country that you have lived in for many years is unspeakable.

The Japanese were not the only Asians that faced hate towards them. In the 1850s, Chinese moved to the United States of America. Chinese workers were mostly laborers that worked in agriculture, the mines, or the railroads. They were a key component to completing the Central Pacific Railroad. However, workers living in areas near the Chinese were afraid of them taking over their jobs. This led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibiting the immigration of Chinese to the United States for 10 years. Through these recent acts of racism, I have learned that fear of newcomers led to racism. People such as the Americans living in these locations, are afraid of what these new or darker-skinned people can do.

Racism was never brought about, it has always resonated in the back of one’s mind as a fear factor to justify and calm one’s nerves.