Blackness and Whiteness: Part 1: The Creation...

By: Richard Graves, MA American History, 06/29/2025

"Discussiong the History of White and Black Identity in the United States and the West"

White and Black are not races; they are descriptive references to skin color. Humanity constitutes a single race, marked by a continuum of skin tones that range from light brown, which may appear pale or “white,” to dark brown, often labeled as “black.” The notion of discrete racial categories emerges not from biological science but from social and cultural constructions, specifically the concepts of “Whiteness” and “Blackness.” Within this framework, visible human phenotypes; skin tone, hair texture, facial feature, have been miscategorized as markers of separate races. These socially constructed categories, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, and White, do not correspond to distinct genetic groupings but to imposed labels designed to stratify human societies. Racism, in this context, is not limited to hostility between groups but includes internalized hierarchies within them. It is, at its core, a belief in superiority or inferiority based on phenotypic markers that have been socially coded as “race” (Hacker, 2003, p. 11).

Although humanity is richly diverse in ethnicity and culture, the dominant racial binary in the United States,  and much of the Western world, reduces this complexity to a false opposition between Blackness and Whiteness. These categories are not natural; they are sociopolitical constructs, developed to support and justify systems of exploitation, most notably the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (Nunn, 2008, p. 140). This is not to suggest that people were previously blind to physical differences. Rather, the critical shift occurred when those differences became formalized into a social caste system, where individuals with African ancestry, especially enslaved Africans, were branded “Black” and assigned an inferior social status (Hacker, 2003, p. 11).

This system of classification became embedded in the legal, economic, and cultural norms of Western society. The foundations of Blackness and Whiteness as social categories can be traced to 1444 AD, when Portuguese traders first transported enslaved Africans to Europe and West African islands (Nunn, 2008, p. 140). Over the subsequent century, European powers institutionalized the slave trade and simultaneously developed ideological frameworks that dehumanized African peoples.

A cultural rendering of this moment appears in the television adaptation of American Gods, where the deity Anansi (Mr. Nancy), portrayed by Orlando Jones, tells the enslaved Africans, “You all don’t know you’re Black yet. You think you just people. Let me be the first to tell you that you are all Black. The moment these Dutch motherf***ers set foot here and decided they were white, you get to be Black” (American Gods, 2017). This dramatization captures the imposition of racial identity as a political designation rather than a cultural one.

Before these designations, people identified according to ethnic and national affiliations: Scots, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Poles, Asante, Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba, etc. They did not perceive themselves as members of a “race,” but rather as part of extended kinship networks, nations, and linguistic or cultural groups (Ely, Wilson, Jackson, & Jackson, 2006). Of the 11 million Africans taken into bondage, 9 million survived the harrowing Middle Passage. Upon arrival in the Americas, enslaved Africans of different people groups were deliberately separated and mixed to suppress revolt and hasten cultural erasure (Nunn, 2008, p. 140). In time, this fragmentation gave rise to a homogenized identity: “Black people,” forged through suffering, resistance, and collective endurance.

The racial categories of Black and White were later solidified by pseudo-scientific theories that claimed to identify biological differences between “sub-races” within the human species. These theories were presented as empirical science but were in fact tools of political control, rooted not in genetics but in phenotype, culture, and power dynamics (Hacker, 2003, p. 11; Ely et al., 2006). Blackness and Whiteness thus evolved into instruments of governance, serving the interests of colonial and economic elites.

In colonial America, Blackness came to represent the lowest rung in the emerging racial hierarchy, while poor Whites, often indentured servants from the British Isles, were eventually allowed to claim Whiteness as a marker of elevated social status. Despite occupying similar economic positions, poor Whites were afforded a symbolic superiority over Black individuals, enslaved or free (Hacker, 2003, p. 11). The value of Whiteness became so pronounced that some enslaved individuals who could “pass” as White (due to their ethnic admixture with Europeans and Native Americans) did so in hopes of escaping racial subjugation.

This historical reality also debunks the myth that “the Irish were slaves,” a claim frequently invoked to minimize the brutality of chattel slavery. Although Irish and other European groups did experience indentured servitude, they were eventually granted access to Whiteness and the privileges that accompanied it, including the right to distinguish themselves from the Black underclass (Hacker, 2003, p. 11).

What is often ignored in mainstream narratives is the uniquely American form of racism that is fundamentally structured around anti-Blackness. Racism in the United States is not merely a generic bias against difference; it is a system designed to protect and elevate Whiteness while suppressing and devaluing Blackness. This system not only created cultural hierarchies but also entrenched economic divisions, pitting poor Whites against poor Blacks in a cycle of engineered antagonism (Nunn, 2008, p. 140).

Other racialized groups: Arabs, Asians, Latinos, Indigenous peoples, etc.; have often been coerced into this binary framework. Depending on phenotype and cultural behavior, they are pressured to align with one side or the other. Asians are sometimes designated as “model minorities” for adhering to so-called White values, while Latinos may seek to assimilate by anglicizing their names or distancing themselves from Blackness.

This reality does not negate the cultural uniqueness or distinct challenges faced by these communities, nor does it minimize the discrimination they have endured. Rather, it underscores a critical point: in the American context, Whiteness and Blackness are the dominant racial categories through which power, opportunity, and exclusion are negotiated. These are not neutral descriptors but ideological tools, rooted in visual appearance and social perception, that continue to shape access to privilege or exposure to systemic harm.

Works Cited:

American Gods. (2017, May 7). The secret of spoons (Season 1, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In B. Fuller & M. Green (Executive Producers), American Gods. Starz Network.

Ely, B., Wilson, J. L., Jackson, F., & Jackson, B. A. (2006). African-American mitochondrial DNAs often match mtDNAs found in multiple African ethnic groups. BMC Biology, 4(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-4-34

Hacker, A. (2003). Two nations: Black and White, separate, hostile, unequal Scribner.

Nunn, N. (2008). The long-term effects of Africa’s slave trades. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(1), 139–176. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.139