Enlightenment bred racism because wrongs now need ideological justification

Evidence

The question is sometimes asked: “How is it that racism and anti-Semitism flourished in Europe of all places—Europe of the enlightenment, of human rights and the rest?” My answer would be to say that it is precisely because of these that racism—that is to say, ideologically formulated hatred—flourished in Eu­ rope. In unenlightened times and places people are content to give way to their instincts; in some societies it is seen as normal, even as lawful, to enslave a defeated enemy and take his women as concubines. In enlightened times and places it is necessary to find rationalization and justification for such behavior. Individuals can do evil without compunction and without regret, but societies, civilizations, need to feel that what they are doing is right. If what they are doing is manifestly wrong they will find a justification for it. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1037 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

While this assimilationist vision is closely linked to the politics of national unity, its legitimacy has primarily been based on science. Racial theories were only made possible by the advent of scientific knowledge in Europe from the late eighteenth century onwards, as science offered a whole new episteme from which a relationship between culture and biology could for the first time be systematically imagined. Racial theories, first in parts of Europe and gradually in other points of the globe, sought to explain cultural differences as natural differences and to represent social groups as biological units: racial theorists appropriated science, from craniology to genetics, in order to present the group boundaries they had constructed as objectively grounded in natural laws. In Europe, China, and many other parts of the globe, negative attitudes about the physical appearance of individuals or population groups can be found before modernity, but these attitudes rarely formed a coherent system which could provide legitimacy to social inclusions or exclusions. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3303 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Enlightenment laid the basis for modern ideas of race; Eighteenth century ethnology secularized racism into a scientific ideology justifying conquest.; Ideological racism emerged precisely because Enlightenment values demand rationalizations for evil — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1037 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideological racism emerged precisely because Enlightenment values demand rationalizations for evil #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1037
• Racial theory needed post-Enlightenment science to become a legitimation system #complicates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3303