Have you ever wondered why we call white people
“Caucasian”?
The answer is surprisingly—
heck, you know how what this show is about!
Most people know the definition of Caucasian
as “a white-skinned person of European descent”.
Right? Not really.
Outside of America, white people generally
aren’t seen as Caucasian at all. Why?
Because almost every country
has a different definition for Caucasian:
“a person from the Caucasus region”.
Which, in case you’re wondering, is actually right over here,
with parts of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
and northern Turkey.
So why has Caucasian become synonymous
with all white people?
Well bucket your seatbelts ‘cause things
are about to get pretty racist.
A century before Hitler’s rise to power,
there was another German man
who believed white people were the perfect race:
Christoph Meiners,
who was one of the earliest adopters of “scientific racism”.
Now hold on, because it’s about to get really unscientific.
Meiners believed that Caucasians,
A.K.A. the actual people
from that region between Russia and Turkey,
had, quote, the “whitest, most blooming,
and most delicate skin”.
In fact, he viewed every non-Caucasian race
as ugly, inferior, immoral, and animal-like.
He also believed people from the Middle East
and Asia had little intelligence
and were predispositioned to be evil.
Then German scientist
Johann Blumenbach added to this emerging definition.
Blumenbach believed that the Caucasus region was home
to the most beautiful race of men: the people of Georgia.
And what made the Georgian people so beautiful?
Well this creepy guy had a huge collection
of human skulls
and, out of the 245,
the Georgian skull was his favorite.
Did I mention that he had a collection
of 245 human skulls?
So this weirdo, using no science at all,
decided that all of humanity must have come from this region.
Spoiler alert— we didn’t.
He also decided that all light-skinned people
from Europe belonged to the same race: Caucasian.
Then he split the rest of the world
into four other races,
which he referred to as “degenerate forms
of God’s original creation”.
Sounds like a fun guy.
Those other races were: Mongolian, the “yellow” race;
Malayan, the “brown” race;
Ethiopian, the “black” race;
and American, the “red” race.
Blumenbach’s racial classifications
went on to be adopted by the newly formed
United States, because of course it did.
It helped our Founding Fathers justify things like slavery
and selective immigration quotas.
But that was a long time ago, right?
So why does the word Caucasian persist
while other old-timey categories
like Mongoloid and Negroid have disappeared?
Well there seems to be a few reasons
that are a little intertwined.
In America there’s a long legal history of the word.
The Supreme Court has actually used Caucasian in 64 cases,
including one from 1928 that is key.
During the 1920s, only free whites,
or Caucasians, were allowed to become naturalized citizens.
In 1928, Bhagat Singh Thind,
an Indian man who fought for the U.S.
in World War I,
tried to become a U.S. citizen
by arguing that many anthropologists
defined Indians as Caucasians.
After a major legal battle, the Supreme Court decided
that Caucasian really only meant white Europeans.
This decision legally codified the modern American definition
of Caucasian as “whites with European ancestry”.
Why else? We don’t exactly know for sure,
but one reason I think Caucasian has likely stuck around
is because of its power.
Language is one of the most systematic, subtle,
and significant vehicles for spreading racial ideology.
And Caucasian implies that white people are different
from other racial groups in America.
It makes is seem like white people
are somehow connected in a way
that’s not just based on the pigmentation of their skin.
It even sounds kinda scientific,
even though it’s really, really not.
So were you surprised by the history
of the word Caucasian?
Sound off in the comments below
and we’ll see you next week right here on Decoded.
…like Marcus:
he thought he was definitely getting in because he was black.
Nope, that’s just not how affirmative action works.
Even Marcus may as well have lit
that 75 dollar application fee on fire.
And if you really want to get upset, meet Bradley.
He’s a legacy.
Bradley got in because his dad and grandpa
both went to school here.