Race originated as a hereditary cultural-religious distinction, not physical appearance

Evidence

If the Spanish origin of the term is true, then the problem with “race” goes back to its beginnings. It was used to expel from Spain people “tainted” by Jewish and Moorish blood - hence “race” in the “physical” and “visible” sense, we might think. Yet the list of people to which the doctrine of purity of blood (limpieza de sangre) was applied went on and included descendants of heretics and of “penitenciados (those condemned by the Inquisition)” (Stolcke, 1994:276-7). Thus at this terrible beginning, “race” was hardly based on the perception of phenotypal difference but on a religiously and politically, hence “culturally,” defined distinction that was legislated to be hereditary, innate, and immutable. It was what we would now call an “ethnic” distinction, as defined by Nathan Glazer as well as by Pierre van den Berghe. Stuart Hall (1994) said memorably that race and ethnicity play hide-and-seek with each other. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Realist racial-formation theory treats religious-flavored premodern hostility as not a form of race. — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 21; Race was co-constituted with religion in European history. — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 31; Races are produced by racism, not by biology — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 76 (+17 more)

Broader Connections

• Race originated as a cultural-religious distinction legislated into biological heredity #expands (0.97) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724