The segregationist-assimilationist split began as a curse-versus-climate debate

Evidence

The first major debate between racists had invaded the English discourse. This argument about the cause of inferior Blackness—curse or climate, nature or nurture—would rage for decades, and eventually influence settlers to America. Curse theorists were the first known segregationists. They believed that Black people were naturally and permanently inferior, and totally incapable of becoming White. Climate theorists were the first known assimilationists, believing Black people had been nurtured by the hot sun into a temporary inferiority, but were capable of becoming White if they moved to a cooler climate. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 72

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the origin story of the reader’s central three-way scheme: the first segregationists and assimilationists were curse versus climate theorists in 1570s England.
• XREF: Direct evidence for the reader’s goal of placing arguments into Kendi’s scheme — the nature/nurture framing has roots four centuries deeper than modern heredity debates.
• SEED: An essay angle: the exact same nature-versus-nurture debate structure recurs in every era (climate, curse, heredity, genes) — the theory changes but the political placement does not.
• DEEPTHINKING: The key insight that segregationism and assimilationism both assume Black inferiority and differ only on permanence — the binary frames the reader’s reading purpose.