Chapter 19 European Movement in Worl History

What struck me most interesting in this chapter was the section about the perception of the "other" (563). Throughout history people have always treated other people differentlyt because they labeled them as different. It is an "us" vs. "them" kind of issue. People create a self concept and group with people who relate. All people who differ from them are automatically considered to be an other. This classification of people is very dangerous because it justifies peoples' actions when they treat one another differently. It is easy for a person to dehumanize another person when they classify them as an other. The white Europeans easily classified Africans as unhuman because they looked different from what the Europeans were used to. the Africans differed from the norm and were judged because of it. The Europeans convinced themselves that the Africans were less than human and thereforeable to be manipulated like animals. This section of the chapter speaks about the process of classifying people as the "other". In religion many would think that all other people who are not Christian are not children of God. People usually classified "others" based on physical appearances. Later the Europeans took a more scientific approach at classifying people. Craniologists began to measure the size of skulls. The skulls of white people happened to be larger so they automatically assumed that caucasian was the supior race and that all others were inferior to them. Race became everything, there were sterotypes created that labeled every person in a race the same things. There was no more individuality because people looked at your skin color and assumed they already knew everything about you. This system of creating "others" has only seperated the human race and kept us from uniting to learn from one another.