The term race originated as a culturally defined, legislated hereditary exclusion

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. A categorical refusal to find any possible relationship between ethnicity and race - even if that relationship should turn out to make “race” an aspect of “ethnicity” - does not seem promising as a program of scholarship. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724

Categorization

• DEFINE: Origin story for ‘race’ showing it began as a hereditary, legislated cultural/religious category, not pure phenotype.
• XREF: Strongly qualifies vault claims that treat race as essentially visual/phenotypic by contrast with cultural ethnicity; echoes the reading purpose’s stated need to sharpen definitions. — connects to: Race originated as a cultural-religious distinction legislated into biological heredity — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724; Race originated as a hereditary cultural-religious distinction, not physical appearance; Race is a culturally invented discursive category used to inferiorize groups. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1106
• SEED: Article possibility: tracing ‘race’ back through limpieza de sangre to show modern phenotype-based race is a later narrowing, not the original meaning.

Broader Connections

• Race originated as a cultural-religious distinction legislated into biological heredity #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724
• Race originated as a hereditary cultural-religious distinction, not physical appearance #corroborates (0.90)
• Race is a culturally invented discursive category used to inferiorize groups. #expands (0.80) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1106