Racial categories were administratively imposed on people formerly counted as white in the 1760s

Evidence

The bourgeoisie that led the development of capitalism were drawn from particular ethnic and cultural groups; the European proletariats and the mercenaries of the leading states from others; its peasants from still other cultures; and its slaves from entirely different worlds. The tendency of European civilization through capitalism was thus not to homogenize but to differentiate—to exaggerate regional, subcultural, and dialectical differences into “racial” ones. As the Slavs became the natural slaves, the racially inferior stock for domination and exploitation during the early Middle Ages, as the Tartars came to occupy a similar position in the Italian cities of the late Middle Ages, so at the systemic interlocking of capitalism in the sixteenth century, the peoples of the Third World began to fill this expanding category of a civilization reproduced by capitalism. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial hierarchy and whiteness were invented inside Europe before modern capitalism; Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance; The Negro and whiteness were invented in Europe through scholarly effort (+12 more)

Related

• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them (similarity 0.86)
• The category of the Negro was fabricated in the West, not Africa (similarity 0.85)
• Colonial censuses turned diverse Europeans into a white race by 1911. (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. (similarity 0.83)
• Racial categories are relative, situational constructs engendered by historical processes. (similarity 0.82)
• Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalism emerged within feudalism rather than negating it, rooted in racialism. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist expansion pursued racial directions, not the rationalization Marx expected (similarity 0.81)
• Racialism pervaded Western consciousness before and beyond capitalism (similarity 0.80)
• Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial use of ‘black’ did not necessarily denote African descent (similarity 0.80)
• European racialism has four analytically distinct historical moments (similarity 0.80)
• Racial difference had to be manufactured before Europeans seemed alien (similarity 0.80)
• Marx presupposed a coherent racist and imperial ordering of world capitalism (similarity 0.80)
• European racism predates African enslavement and originated as intra-European domination (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Racial hierarchy and whiteness were invented inside Europe before modern capitalism #expands (0.75)
• The Negro and whiteness were invented in Europe through scholarly effort #corroborates (0.70)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them #exemplifies (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205
• Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance #qualifies (0.60)
• The category of the Negro was fabricated in the West, not Africa #corroborates (0.60)
• Colonial administrators were certain about racial character but uncertain how to name the population #expands (0.60)
• Colonial officials proposed legal recognition of European status based on visible racial traits #corroborates (0.55)
• Inconsistencies in colonial racial categories reveal latent distinctions rather than errors #qualifies (0.50)