Bloodlines and race in historical context

Bloodlines and Race

Moslem communities and Moslem slave-holders in particular, have often been conceived as color-blind. Lewis claims this is not so, why? What evidence can he bring to bear?

Bernard Lewis is a renowned historian scholar, with many great, detailed researches on his record. As a born Jew, Lewis's obvious interest was towards the Middle East civilization and its history, thus he did his PhD in the history of Islam and has a series of highly acclaimed academic works upon the Ottoman Empire. Amongst his several other books, there is Race and Slavery in the Middle East: a Historical Enquiry, which was written in 1990. In this book, Lewis provided a detailed research upon the concept and practice of slavery in Islam, since its innovation till its abolition. He has noted several facts which were never mentioned before, and used Islamic writings and pictorial representations as basis. He quoted several Muslim scholars to prove his analysis that although, Islam as a religion greatly condemned the practice of slavery, yet this command of the Holy Quran is not much followed by the Muslims of later times. It was just that the free Muslims cannot be made the slaves, whether he/she is of any race or color; all other non-believers who were usually taken as the prisoners of wars can be made slaves. Muslims traded slaves for a long time and it included every race or color, like white Turks or black Negros, but like other similar concepts, Muslims too preferred whites over blacks and treated them more humbly. Whites were of high cost as compare to blacks, and it was a common belief that blacks have no intelligence and thus are destined for slavery. Lewis quoted Jahiz and Ibrahim al Mawsili that white females were more expensive as they were considered brighter. Also, white slaves were assigned light domestic work while the blacks carried heavy burdens. Those slaves who were imported from east Africa lived a miserable life, they had very less to eat and a lot of work to do. Hence overall, the view that Muslim slave holders do not account for color for their slaves is not a fact, instead Muslims considered color and skin while trading the slaves and used white slaves as their entertainment while blacks as nothing but a two hand animal to do work for them (Lewis 1990).

Discuss Andrews and the history of Latin American racial change. What is browning and blacking?

George Reid Andrews is the chairperson and professor in the department of history, University of Pittsburgh. He did his PhD from University of Wisconsin in 1978, with specialization in racial changes, society and culture of Latin America. His famous publication, Afro-Latin America 1800-2000, discusses the descent of black Africans into the countries of Latin America and the throughout phase of the rise and abolition of slavery in these particular areas. Andrews also discussed the economic, social, political and cultural impacts of such events shaped by the African slaves who tried hard to get rid themselves out of this misery. They brought a racial change by indulging themselves into social activities and organizations, federal government services, politics and in other such activities which can entitle them a respectful and equal citizen of the society. He discussed 1930-2000 as an era of browning and blackening, by describing that by this time, there have been too much number of Africans in Latin America that the racial heritage get mixed. Countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil were trying to cope with this problem by infusing whites so that the inheritance would not get transferred to someone inferior, blacks. But when this approach entirely failed out due to lack of systematic modernization, the new national identities of Latin America started treating the existing heritage and racial mixing as "the essence of being Latin American." This phenomenon was termed as cultural browning by Andrews. During this time, the mixing of blacks in Afro-Latin American culture as a part of social circle and professionals which was initially disregarded and condemned was now nationally accepted and this provoked the emergence of several new black social movements which eventually led the continent towards blackening. The movements were mostly led by socially inferior poor blacks, who were deprived of a respectable social position despite of their skills and professionalism. Such movements were not only useful for them, as they achieved the goal by achieving dignity and identification for them, but also led towards the milestone for the racial changes in the continent and finally for the independence and abolition of slavery (Andrews 2004).