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Aug 14, 1521
The Spainards Conquer the Aztec Empire
When the Spaniards conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521, the Spaniards created “two distinct legal systems: one that pertained to Europeans (the república de españoles) and one for native peoples (the república de indios). In practice, racial mixing produced a much more complicated social reality. As a result, social status in colonial Mexico was the result of a caste system, or permeable social hierarchy based on differences in wealth, inherited rank, culture, and skin color. European-born Spania -
Period: Dec 12, 1526 to
The Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade was the first slave voyage from Africa, to the Americas. It was conducted by the Portuguese in 1526. This trade is not only remembered for its duration, but for how it impacted what is culture today. Due to the Atlantic Slave Trade, things unknown to one “world” was brought to the other. It also allowed people from one ethnic background to have children with people from a different ethnic background than them. This will later become a problem (Mintz). -
Period: Nov 17, 1558 to
The Elizabethan Era
During this era, "European culture became obsessed with cleanliness.Given the centrality, if not inescapability, of African (Black) representation to the construction of White identity, particularly in the context of European/White nationalism, the cleanliness associated with Whiteness relied upon the projectionof dirtiness as inherent to Blackness" (Blay). This period is an important mark in the making of cultural racisim, and eventually colorism. -
The Willie Lynch Letter: The Making Of A Slave!
In this speech, Lynch outlines the way slave owners can control their slaves; by pegging them against one another. Lynch points out that he uses "fear, distrust and envy for control" (Lynch). Lynch does this by outlining the differences among slaves and then giving one group more privileges over the other. -
Publication of "If the Present Looks Like the Past, What Does the Future Look Like?"
In this essay, Alice Walker coins the term colorism as the “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on the color of their skin” (Walker). This finally gives the long time idea of discrimination between people of the same race a definition.
