A 'black' woman said that she didn't knew she was black until she was 16. Does that mean 'blackness' is like 'whiteness' a social construction?
Yes, an individual not realising they are Black until later in life directly illustrates that both "Blackness" and "Whiteness" are social constructions rather than biological absolutes. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
While the physical trait of skin pigmentation is biological (determined by melanin), the act of grouping people into rigid racial categories and assigning meaning, status, or identity to those categories is entirely a human invention. [4, 6]
Why a Person Might Not Know Their Race
A person can live for years without realising they are "Black" because racial awareness requires an environment that enforces racial definitions. This dynamic typically happens due to specific social conditions: [4, 7, 8]
- Homogeneous Upbringing: If a child is raised in an isolated, monolithic environment (such as an all-White family or community) where race is never discussed, they may only internalise the dominant culture and see themselves as the "default". [9, 10]
- Lack of Social Friction: Children generally do not think of themselves in terms of abstract racial categories until external forces—such as racism, societal labeling, or systemic rules—impose those categories onto them. [11, 12, 13]
- The "Ah-Ha" Moment: The realisation at age 16 usually happens because the individual enters a new social context (like a new school, job, or dating market) where peers or institutions explicitly categorise, treat, or "other" them based on their physical appearance. [9, 11, 14, 15, 16]
Evidence That Race is a Social Construct
Sociologists, historians, and geneticists point to several factors to prove that racial categories are built by society, not nature: [17, 18, 19]
1. No Biological or Genetic Basis
In 2003, the Human Genome Project concluded that there is no specific genetic marker for race. In fact, scientific data shows that 85% of all human genetic variation occurs within localised populations, meaning there is often more genetic difference between two Black individuals than between a Black person and a White person. [3, 4, 17]
2. Shifting Definitions Across Time
The definition of who belongs to a certain race changes constantly based on political and economic needs. For example, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish, Italian, and Slavic immigrants in the United States were not considered "White" by the dominant Anglo-Saxon society. Over decades, legal and social definitions shifted, and these groups were absorbed into the category of Whiteness. [4, 6]
3. Definitions Vary by Geography
Racial categories are not uniform globally. What it means to be "Black" or "White" differs sharply depending on the country: [4]
- United States: Historically used the strict "one-drop rule," meaning any known African ancestry legally and socially categorized a person as Black. [20, 21, 22, 23]
- Brazil and South Africa: Utilize highly fluid, multi-tiered systems that distinguish between Black, White, Mixed, and "Coloured," heavily relying on precise combinations of skin shade, hair texture, and socioeconomic class. [4, 9, 24]
The Real-World Impact
Saying something is a social construct does not mean it is an illusion or that it lacks power. Money and laws are also social constructs, yet they govern our daily lives. [3, 4, 8]
When did whiteness was constructed?
The legal and social construction of "Whiteness" was created during the late 17th century (specifically between the 1660s and 1690s) in the British colonies of North America and the Caribbean. [1, 2, 3]
Before this period, Europeans did not view themselves as a collective "White" race. Instead, they identified strictly by their nationality (e.g., English, Irish, Dutch), religion (Christian), or social class. [4, 5]
The concept of Whiteness was intentionally engineered as a political tool to protect colonial wealth and justify African chattel slavery. [1, 6]
The Catalyst: Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
In early 1600s Virginia, the tobacco economy relied heavily on both European indentured servants and African labourers. They worked side by side, faced the same brutal conditions, intermarried, and frequently escaped together. [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
In 1676, a wealthy colonist named Nathaniel Bacon organized an armed uprising called Bacon's Rebellion. His militia consisted of thousands of poor European servants and enslaved Black Africans unified against the ruling planter class. [9, 11, 12, 13, 14]
The rebellion terrified the wealthy elite, who realized that if poor Europeans and Africans stayed united, they could overthrow the colonial government. [8, 12, 15, 16]
Driving a Wedge: The Legal Creation of "Whiteness"
To prevent future alliances, Virginia’s ruling class systematically used the law to divide the working class by inventing a new racial hierarchy. [6]
Between 1680 and 1705, the colonial assembly passed a series of laws known as the Virginia Slave Codes:
- The Word Appears: The word "White" first officially replaced the word "Christian" in Virginia and Caribbean legal documents around the 1680s and 1691. [2, 17]
- The Permanent Slave Class: The laws declared that people of African descent were to be hereditary, perpetual slaves. [18, 19, 20]
- The Privilege Incentive: To keep poor Europeans from rebelling, the elite granted them small, exclusive legal privileges. Poor Europeans were given land, corn, and weapons upon finishing their service. They were given legal authority over Black people and hired to patrol slave quarters. [3, 6, 17, 21, 22]
By giving poor Europeans a higher social status than Black people, the elite successfully bonded poor Europeans to the wealthy ruling class under a shared identity of "Whiteness". [3, 6]
Scientific Racism (18th–19th Century)
What started as a pragmatic tool for colonial labour control was later codified into "science" during the Enlightenment. [5, 23]
In the 1700s and 1800s, European naturalists like Carolus Linnaeus and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach began creating pseudo-scientific classification systems for humans. Blumenbach coined the term "Caucasian" and arbitrarily ranked the White race at the top of a biological hierarchy based on aesthetic preference. This provided an academic veneer that justified global colonialism and transatlantic slavery. [5, 23, 24]
The Boundaries Kept Shifting
Because Whiteness is a political club rather than a biological reality, its membership rules changed whenever the dominant culture needed to adjust its power base: [5, 25, 26, 27, 28]
- 1790 Naturalization Act: The newly formed United States limited naturalized citizenship strictly to "free white persons". [25]
- The Excluded Europeans: When massive waves of Irish, Italian, and Slavic immigrants arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they were originally treated as racially distinct, sub-human, and not truly "White". [5, 25, 29, 30]
- Assimilation: Over generations, as these immigrant groups assimilated into American political life and aligned against civil rights movements, the legal and social definitions expanded to include them into the umbrella of Whiteness. [5, 25]
__________
References for part 1
[18] https://study.com
[24] https://fiveable.me
References for part 2
[17] https://medium.com
[20] https://muse.jhu.edu
Comments