Racism in the New World

Soon after the Europeans colonized the New World, the idea of racial distinctions developed. While many of the colonists had fled the rigid societies of Europe because they were dedicated to the concept of natural rights and equality, there were still many who believed that people should be treated differently according to the innate biological differences among them. Thus, it was determined that there should be a clear distinction between European "white" men and Native American or black persons. The colonies in North America were intended to be settlement colonies, as opposed to other types of colonies, such as the Spanish developed in Mexico, in which the conquerors wished to extort as much material wealth from the native population as possible. The North American colonies, therefore, wished to eliminate the indigenous population, or at the very least, separate them from the Anglo Saxon population completely (Kaufman 2003, p. 124).

Still, in many ways, the colonial attitude toward black persons was tied to economic concerns. The burgeoning colonial economy benefited from the use of slave labor, and the colonists began to use racism as a means of justifying this exploitation.

Political and legal measures decreed that blacks were non-persons, so that they could be considered the property of colonists. However, despite the fact that these efforts to dehumanize blacks was largely motivated by economic interests, they soon lead to institutionalized racism which

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Category: Psychology - R