How the World Became Racist: Axes, Animals, and Agriculture

Three clever and popular things NOT invented by White people. Pokémon logo is in the public domain, image courtesy of Wikipedia. Papyrus of Henefer is a free image courtesy of the British Museum. Inuit sunglasses image is in the public domain, courtesy of arctic explorer L.T. Burgess and the Library and Archives Canada.

How did the United States and a few other nations come to possess such a massive portion of the earth’s wealth? Two decades ago, the geographer, historian, and evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond gave us the one-word answer: agriculture. This blog explains how agriculture begat racism.

A common argument that Whites are superior to other ethnic groups — though the argument is often implicit rather than explicit — is the fact that Whites have so much money, power, and technology. If Whites are not the superior race, so the argument goes, why did White people invent everything amazing, from the steamboat to democracy? If you think I lifted this racist rhetoric from the 1800s, consider what Iowa Congressman Steve King said during a 2016 MSNBC panel discussion. King offered the following rhetorical question in response to a comment from progressive writer Charlie Pierce.

“This whole white people business does get a little tired, Charlie. I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about. Where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes wanted to be sure he understood King’s point.