Where Does the Idea of Race Come From?

Where does the idea of race come from?

When we meet new people, one of the first things we notice about them is their race.

But, what if I told you the idea of race hasn’t always existed?

Before 1492, when Columbus arrived in Hispaniola, the notion that people belong to different races didn’t exist. Europeans created racial categories to explain the differences between themselves and the rest of the world.

Race is a modern invention. Ancient people didn’t divide the world into distinct races. The ancient Ethiopians and Greeks, for example, didn’t think of each other as black or white. There wasn’t even a word for “race” in their vocabulary.

The rise of science made the idea of race possible.