“Systemic Racism”: a Popular Illusion

“These slavery and race theorists are correct about the existence of the stain but wrong about it being indelible.”

Slavery was commonly practiced throughout the world before and after the advent of Christianity. But some still blame the Catholic Church’s 15th century Doctrine of Discovery that claimed ownership of all discovered lands for the purpose of European colonization. The subjugation of native peoples then came in tow. However, since slavery had existed on every continent long before, placing the blame along these lines seems skewed against Christians, as well as being rather short-sighted.

The Papal Bull (Proclamation) “Inter Caetera” issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, gave European Christians a monopoly on the lands in the New World. It read: “…the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.”

This was the common practice of conquest done by nearly every tribe and society of mankind since antiquity. Slavery was part of conquest; it was systemic throughout the Old World. Today, some claim that the one-time existence of slavery has left behind an indelible stain of systemic racism on the United States.

These slavery and race theorists are correct about the existence of the stain but wrong about it being indelible. Despite the 620,000 Americans—equivalent to 6 million in today’s population—who died in action in the Civil War to end slavery, the defeated and resentful Southern states were the first population in the world to institute systemic racism in 1877, known as the “Jim Crow” laws. If they could not have their slavery, they could still identify by race and exploit former slaves.