To Be Or Not To Be Racist.

In recent discussions of New Spain and the 1500's discovery era, a controversial issue has been whether the acts, of powers at be , towards the natives of the new world ,were racist or result of a lack of understanding. On the one hand, some argue that the facts are undeniable. From this perspective they look at the treatment of the people and believe that theres no way that the abuse they inflicted on the natives were not acts of racism. On the other hand, however, others argue that racism has to come with the knowledge, understanding and a grudge against a single race of people, against others who were colored different then themselves. Although some might object and say that a abuse of a single race is an obvious example of racism , i reply that these harsh acts were not just based on their skin color. They didn't abuse them because they had darker skin, it was due to the Spaniards want of power, misunderstanding, and lack of knowledge of that culture. They saw a opportunity to over come, and conquer, and of course as history proves is an inevitable human trait, they climbed to the top in the way they knew how. This situation could of easily been with a race of light colored people and the result would of been no different. A good point brought up in yesterdays calls discussion was that they married the natives, in a racist environment this would be hugely unacceptable, but the Spaniards did it all the time without a fuss. The issue is important because before we judge our judgmental past, we need be mighty careful to not judge to quickly on races we as well cannot understand fully.