Racism

Humans often categorize themselves by race or ethnicity. They do this based on ancestry, as well as visible traits like skin color and facial features. People of the same ethnic group are often connected by ancestry, speaking the same language, having the same culture, and living in the same places. This attempt to categorize human types has led to racism, a non-scientific theory or ideology, that a particular race was superior or inferior. These beliefs supported such dreadful discriminatory events of human history as the horrors of African slavery, the Jim Crow laws in the United States, The Nuremberg Laws and The Holocaust in Nazi Germany, The Apartheid laws in South Africa and The White Australia policy in Australia.

A sign on a racially segregated beach during the era of Apartheid in South Africa

Black people in ancient Rome were not discriminated against because of their skin color or physical features. They were not excluded from any profession and there was no stigma against mixed race relationships. Classical writers did not attach social status or degree of humanity to skin color.

The largest mass lynching in United States history took place on October 24, 1871 when around 500 white rioters entered Chinatown in Los Angeles to attack, rob, and murder its residents.

In Waco Texas in 1916, 10,000 people watched the lynching of Jesse Washington (he was castrated, burned, and mutilated for over two hours). A photographer sold postcards of the event. Prominent citizens eventually persuaded the photographer to stop selling them fearing the images would come to characterize the town.

An early use of the word "racism" was by Richard Henry Pratt in 1902: "Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism."

The popular use of the word "racism" in the Western world didn't come into widespread usage until the 1930s, when the was used to describe the social and political ideology of Nazism, which saw "race" as a naturally given political unit. However, racism existed way before the coinage of the word – antisemitism, for instance, has a long history.

Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, Germany, 1933

In 1920 the noted American eugenicist Lothrop Stoddard published The Rising Tide of Color: The Threat Against White World-Supremacy. The book predicted the collapse of white world empire and colonialism because of the population growth among people not of the white race, rising nationalism in colonized nations, and industrialization in China and Japan. Stoddard advocated restricting non-white migration into white nations, restricting Asian migration to Africa and Latin America. He supported a separation of the "primary races" of the world and warned against interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.

On May 14, 1918 during World War I, Sgt Henry "Black Death" Johnson on watch in the Argonne Forest fought off a German raid in hand-to-hand combat, killing multiple German troops and rescuing a fellow soldier while experiencing 21 wounds.

Johnson was the first American in World War to be awarded the Croix De Guerre by France.  His courageous action was brought to the USA population's attention by coverage by a couple of newspapers later that year. However, racism was still a barrier in his own country and Johnson was never recognized by the U.S. until June 2, 2015 when he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a posthumous ceremony at the White House.

Henry Lincoln Johnson in uniform

The term "bleeding heart liberal" was coined in 1933 by far-right journalist Westbrook Pegler, in a column protesting federal anti-lynching laws. Pegler used the term to describe liberals who he believed were overly emotional and sentimental about social issues, and who were more concerned with protecting the rights of criminals than with upholding law and order.

In 1939 the celebrated African American contralto Marian Anderson was refused permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because of her race. The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. Instead, with the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C , for an audience of 75,000 (see picture below).

Future baseball star Jackie Robinson was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus  in 1944, 11 years before Rosa Parks.

After returning from World War II 1.2 million black veterans, who had bravely served their country,  were denied the benefits of the GI bill for free education and low rate home loans

Viola Desmond was a Canadian civil rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. On November 8, 1946 she went to see The Dark Mirror starring Olivia Havilland at the Roseland Film Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Being nearsighted, Desmond went to sit in the floor section to be close to the screen, unaware the main floor seats were reserved for white patrons. She was charged with tax evasion of one cent for refusing to leave a whites-only section of a theatre.  Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.

Desmond was granted a posthumous pardon in 2010, the first to be granted in Canada. In late 2018 Desmond became the first black Canadian woman to appear alone on a Canadian bank note—a $10 bill.

In 1947, the Kiwanis Club of Ahoskie, North Carolina held a drawing for a new Cadillac. When a Black Navy Veteran won, they announced there had been a mistake, refunded the winner the $1 price of his ticket, and drew again for a white winner.

Ed Sullivan took heat from show sponsors Ford Lincoln dealers, for kissing Pearl Baily on the cheek and shaking Nat King Cole's hand during his TV show. He also had a Ford executive thrown out of the theater after he suggested Sullivan should stop booking so many black acts.

In 1955 Seamstress Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The arrest sparked a year-long bus boycott by blacks.

On October 10, 1957, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to apologize to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, after he was refused service in a restaurant. Gbedemah was visiting the United States as part of a delegation from Ghana, which had recently gained independence from the United Kingdom. He and his colleagues stopped at a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Dover, Delaware, for lunch, but they were told that they could not be served because of their race.

The incident caused a diplomatic scandal, and Eisenhower was quick to apologize to Gbedemah. He invited the finance minister to breakfast at the White House, where they discussed the incident and other matters of mutual interest. Eisenhower's apology was a significant step forward in the fight against racial discrimination in the United States. 

There were "Human Zoos" across Europe displaying Africans. The last one, in Belgium, was closed in 1958. To stop visitors from throwing too much candy to the captives, they put up a sign that said, 'the blacks are fed by the organizing committee.'

In 1959 a white man from Texas disguised himself as a black man and traveled for six weeks on greyhound buses. After publishing his experiences with racism he was forced to move to Mexico for several years due to death threats.

In 1960, soul singer Jesse Belvin played to Arkansas' first ever racially integrated audience. The performance was interrupted twice by white protesters. After the show, Belvin was killed in a head-on collision. It was discovered that his car tires had been slashed.

The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 was a major turning point in the fight against racial discrimination in Britain. The boycott was sparked by the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ black or Asian bus crews. The boycott lasted for four months and involved thousands of people. It drew national attention to the issue of racial discrimination and helped to pave the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965, which made discrimination in employment and public places illegal.

Bristol University students march in support of the boycott. Wikipedia

Loving Day is June 12th; the day that Mildred and Richard Loving finally won their case against Virginia in the US Supreme Court in 1967, legalizing interracial marriage in the US.

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, an African American man, was brutally beaten by LAPD officers after a chase. The video sparked national outrage and became a symbol of police brutality. The acquittal of the officers involved in the beating ignited widespread protests and riots in Los Angeles, causing significant damage and injuries. 

Though the initial trial resulted in acquittals, two officers were later convicted of federal civil rights violations. King himself received a settlement from the city. This event remains a significant moment in discussions of police brutality and racial tensions.

On May 25, 2020, the world mourned the loss of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man whose tragic death sparked a global outcry against racial injustice and police brutality. George Floyd's life was cut short in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when a white police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for an agonizing period exceeding eight minutes.

The incident, captured on video by a bystander, circulated widely, igniting a wave of protests and calls for justice across the United States and beyond. People from all walks of life united in demanding accountability, equality, and an end to systemic racism.

After the immense grief and widespread demonstrations, George Floyd was laid to rest on June 9, 2020. He was buried in a grave next to his mother's, a poignant symbol of the deep familial bonds that death could not sever. 

George Floyd's untimely death propelled discussions about racial inequality and police reform to the forefront of public discourse. 

Robert A Heinlein challenged readers' possible racial preconceptions by writing strong, sympathetic characters, only to reveal later that they are of African or other ancestry.

The Cartoon Network banned Speedy Gonzales as a racist stereotype, only to be returned after mass protest by the Hispanic-American community.