Differences Between Race And Sussman's The Myth Of Race

Even before the 18th century, European academics busied themselves attempting to craft the ideal theory that emphasized the distinct differences between the European population and other groups - specifically their superiority. This categorization eventually led to race science: the supposed biological division of all human populations. Just as with other taxonomies, race science included a hierarchy with Europeans as the superior race. The advancement of race science allowed racism to become an objective perspective “founded in unalterable physiological laws”(Cartwright, 1851, 69). The medical field soon became intertwined in the alleged biological differences between races, and the non-European races soon became thought of as a pathology
In her book “The Myth of Race”, Sussman explains, “new rationalizations had to be made to justify mistreating the peoples Europeans encountered and new theories formed to explain their place in the universe”(Sussman, 2016, 12). These justifications continued from early colonization into the practice of slavery, each time using biology and naturalization as the rationale. The general distrust and opinions of undesirable characteristics certain groups exhibited were compacted into ‘scientific’ systems by scholars such as Linneaus, Buffon, and Blumenbach(Hudson, 2016, 252). Creating a taxonomic hierarchy standardized the European’s hierarchy of race, and with classifications such as Linneaus mirroring biological systems, furthered the idea of biological race. Before race science, European explorers attained their sense of superiority through their comparisons of the differences in civilization between each group (Hudson, 2016, 250). Over time, the other population’s perceived lack of civilization became a reflection of inferiority due to their biological differences as a
Kant’s theory stated that “nonwhites do not have the capacity to realize reason and rational moral perfectibility through education” (Sussman, 1018, 29). Postulating that the black race would never reach the intellectual and moral levels the white race possessed reflected the theme of naturalizing racial differences. The mental characteristics associated with the biological differences of the black race such as sloth, torpidity, and beastliness were generalizations made possible by race science. The ability to craft a categorization for a whole population through race science enabled the white race to assume superiority and generate any generalizations about a group of people found to be fit. Assigning an unchangeable biological origin for these generalizations invoked the association of the medical profession that furthered the alleged distinctions between races. The desire to differentiate the European race from all other races remained consistent throughout all anthropological theories and classification systems, which eventually led to scientific