Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race: Hirschman Review

Introduction: Race as a Modern Construct

In modern times, the reality of race is indisputable, especially to American eyes. Racial discrimination is not merely skin deep — based on skin color, facial features, and hair texture — but has existed in various forms since ancient times, with age-old patterns of exploitation and discrimination. In his essay, Charles Hirschman discusses the history of racism in relation to social science. He concludes that the concept of race and racism is not a primordial or ancestral belief; rather, it developed with modernity over the past four centuries and reached its pinnacle in the early twentieth century (385).

Ethnocentrism vs. Racism in Historical Context

Since ancient times, cultural diversity evolved naturally as people learned to survive and settle in different climatic zones, and their physical features — such as skin color and hair — varied according to climatic conditions. Different outcomes were recorded when groups interacted: some encounters were accommodated peacefully, while others produced antagonism, fear, and conflict. This feeling of fear and social distance is captured by the concept of ethnocentrism, which, as defined by Simpson and Yinger, is the human tendency to believe in one's own righteousness and to feel a natural aversion to the beliefs of others (Hirschman 388). According to recent psychological research, anger directed at an alien group can create prejudice and, in times of conflict, can motivate people to attack those who behave and speak differently.

Racism, however, is distinct from ethnocentrism. Racism holds that all humankind is divided into different races with varied characteristics and abilities determined by genes and other biological features — traits that can never change even after the adoption of a new culture, rendering members of a subordinated group permanently unequal to their adoptive society. Racism is an institutionalized belief that the "other group" is inferior and incapable of building an equivalent society. Hirschman further argues that while ethnocentrism exists in most societies, racism is a comparatively recent development (389).

Medieval Spain, the Inquisition, and the Rise of Racial Thinking

Scholars hold varied perspectives on early manifestations of racial thinking. Snowden describes the Egyptian view, in which people considered themselves "the people" and regarded all others as outsiders (Hirschman 389). Kamen describes patterns of conflict, subjugation, and discrimination among Christians, Muslims, and Jews in early medieval Spain, yet an unusual degree of mutual respect was also visible, as these groups lived in the same society and shared language, food, culture, and ideas (Hirschman 390–391). Multicultural cities prospered commercially because their brokers could converse in multiple languages and navigate cultural differences.

However, this relative coexistence ended when the thirteenth century witnessed the Spanish Inquisition — described by Hannaford as initially targeting blasphemy and heresy, but later turning toward the uprooting of Jews who had converted to Christianity, thereby igniting an early form of racial ideology (Hirschman 392).

Darwinian Theory, White Supremacy, and Colonial Power

All of these undercurrents regarding racial differences were transformed in the wake of Darwinian theory in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Darwin's theory stated that all species arise and develop through the natural selection of small genetic differences that increase an individual's capacity to compete, survive, and reproduce. Although Darwinian theory became a leading framework in both science and popular culture, the 1857 Dred Scott decision — which declared enslaved people to be property with no rights of citizenship — provided fertile ground for the philosophy of white supremacy to grow.

By the nineteenth century, European colonists had succeeded in creating deep divisions of power, prestige, and financial status between the ruler and the ruled. This concept of the West and "the other," and the servitude of colonized societies toward the imperial West, has also been discussed in Edward Said's Orientalism (Hirschman 395).

Conclusion: Ethnicity as an Alternative to Race

Hirschman concludes that no theoretical basis for race could be established — only for racism. Although the term has lost biological legitimacy, race is still used as a social category to group people sharing certain physical features and a common ancestral geographical origin. American society, which long practiced the denial of housing, employment, and promotions on the basis of physical appearance, now treats such racial discrimination as illegal, subject to evaluation by administrative bodies and courts.

Hirschman proposes ethnicity as the most appropriate concept to replace race. Being overtly subjective, ethnicity recognizes multiple lines of descent. Different physical appearances may be noted in everyday life, but ethnicity emphasizes ambiguity rather than the rigid divisions characteristic of racial categorization. However, this substitution alone will not resolve the racial issue; it may, in fact, complicate efforts to measure discrimination. The more challenging task, Hirschman argues, will be to develop robust measures of ethnicity and workable concepts for use in administrative records and census data (Hirschman 408–410).

References

Hirschman, Charles. "The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race." Population and Development Review 30.3 (2004): 385–415. Web. 15 May 2016.