racism

인종주의

Although colonialism cannot be compared with Nazism in terms of the violence and virulence of the human destruction it involved, it also found in racialism a helpful rationalization for conquest and expansion. When the Spaniards first came to America, several of their apologists (particularly Francisco de Quevedo and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda) supplied them with the proper excuses for taking the land away from the Indians and for treating them with complete lack of consideration. They developed the theory that the Indians had an entirely different origin from that of the Spaniards, that they were not human in the same sense, and that there was therefore no need to accord to them the same treatment as to one's fellow human beings. The familiar refrain of the "white man's burden," which was mainly of British manufacture and which found its literary expression in the writings of Thomas Carlyle, James A. Froude, and Charles Kingsley, and most strongly and clearly in those of Rudyard Kipling, made of imperialism a noble activity destined to bring civilization to the benighted members of other "races." Similarly, the French justified the maintenance of their colonial empire on the basis of their mission civilisatrice, their duty to bring civilization to the backward peoples of the world. (see also  Spain, American Indian)

In all of these colonizing empires, there were undoubtedly many individuals honestly convinced of the nobility of their motives and their enterprise; at the same time, the feelings of racial superiority that accompanied colonialism played an important part in developing resentments among the colonized which even emancipation and independence have not always made it possible to overcome. There has developed in some parts of the world racialism in reverse, a degree of hostility of coloured peoples against whites as whites.

It remains true that in general, although with certain striking exceptions, the trend has been away from racism. The emergence of new nations, many of them former colonies, has meant that many more nations composed of "coloured peoples" have an independent voice in international affairs that commands a respectful hearing even from previous colonizers. The recognition that the treatment of ethnic minorities within a country may have important implications for international relations has focussed attention upon the need to improve intergroup relations in general. The work of scientists like Franz Boas in anthropology and Gunnar Myrdal and others in the social sciences helped to destroy much of the mythological thinking associated with race. The trend has been reversed in the Republic of South Africa, where separation of ethnic groups increased from 1948 on (see apartheid ). In the United States, on the other hand, the movement was gradually and progressively in the direction of providing greater equality of opportunity for all ethnic groups. The first dramatic expression of this tendency was furnished by the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17, 1954, based in part on social-science research, that the enforced segregation of black schoolchildren in certain states and localities was contrary to the principles of the U.S. Constitution.

일부 두드러진 예외는 있지만, 대체로 세계 흐름이 인종주의에서 많이 벗어났다는 것은 사실이다. 대부분 이전에 식민지였던 지역에 새로운 국가가 생겨남으로써 '유색 민족들'로 이루어진 많은 국가들이 국제문제에서 독자적인 발언권을 갖게 되었고, 따라서 이전의 식민제국들까지도 귀를 기울이게 되었다. 한 국가 안의 소수민족에 대한 대우가 국제관계에서 중요한 의미를 지닐 수 있다는 인식이 생겨나면서 민족 사이의 관계 전체를 개선할 필요가 있다는 생각을 갖게 되었다. 인류학에서 프란츠 보아스, 사회과학분야에서 군나르 뮈르달 등의 저서에 힘입어 인종에 관한 잘못된 관념이 크게 사라지게 되었다. 남아프리카 공화국에서는 이와는 반대로 1948년 이후 인종분리가 심화되어왔다(→ 아파르트헤이트). 한편 미국에서는 모든 민족들에게 좀더 평등한 기회를 주려는 점진적이고 진보적인 움직임이 있었다. 1954년 5월 17일 이러한 경향을 극적으로 드러낸 첫번째 사건이 일어났는데, 미국 대법원이 일부 주와 지역에서 흑인 학생을 강제로 격리하는 것은 미국 헌법정신에 어긋난다고 전원합의로 판결한 것이다. 이러한 대법원의 판결은 부분적으로 사회과학 연구에 근거를 두고 있었다.