Summary Of The Emperor's New Clothes

The insightful book, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, there is a collection of evidence from various time periods. Looking in the past to analyze the current issues of today, is a tactic that is sometimes overlooked. Dr. Graves has stated, “In order to understand racial thinking in the western world, you have to understand the Christian Bible.” In chapter 1, “The Earliest Theories”, the previous statement was supported by Biblical, Greek, Roman, and Medieval concepts. As I read through the chapter, I critically analyzed the multiple claims and arguments.
In the first paragraph there is a claim that the former school, believes that racism is socially constructed, thus, it can be socially deconstructed. On one hand, I do agree that racism is socially
constructed. However, I do not believe that it can be socially deconstructed. The origins of racist mentality are not clear, but we do know that it has been present for an abundant number of years. Due to this long drawn out history of racism, I feel that it is too ingrained in our mindsets to deconstruct. Variations of racism has been passed down in multiple parts of the world for generations, therefore I conclude it would be nearly impossible to shake it.
As I have previously stated, the origins of racism are not clear, however there are clues that showcase some aspects of racism. In the section, “Greeks and Roman Views of Race”, there is a statement saying that Greeks felt that non-Greeks are “barbaric”, and in return the non-Greeks would rid their barbaric ways by adopting Greek culture. This piece of information reminded me of how European-Americans think of non-European descendants, and how they have assimilated other people like Native Americans and African Americans. Assimilation is a key component of racism. This thought alone has made me conclude that the origins of racism have risen after Biblical times and during the building of ancient Greek civilization.