In part two of our series, seeing white, we look at the past and present of whiteness in the world. In this episode, we're going back, well, not really to the beginning. Science now tells us that people evolved in africa from one common ancestor a couple of hundred thousand years ago. Overtime, some people walked out of africa and spread across the world.
For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of “race.” Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.
Photo: The Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. The highlighted figure in the center is an effigy of Gomes Eanes de Zurara. The figure at the top right is Prince Henry the Navigator. Photo by Harvey Barrison.