Bernier, Kant, and Obama

While watching the inauguration speech Obama touched on things that relate to this course. “Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.” Obama being the first black president in American history and realizing how far society and civilization have come from the ideas of Bernier and Kant. Bernier and Kant’s explanation of how the different races were formed seems completely out of touch with what we know today and we question how they could even begin to think that they had the correct answer to the question that stumped them all. Kant’s point on how he believed race and physical features were the best way to distinguish and categorize humans instead of by what they actually know or by who they are is something that is so completely foreign to what I have ever known. My mother told me to never judge a book by its cover and here that is all Kant is doing. The Lapp people or the Eskimos knew things that Kant probably never would, like how to build an igloo in little under an hour, but he demeans them to creatures based on physical appearance. What I also really found interesting was the fact that he found beauty in all races. Well I did not find it interesting because I think anyone can be beautiful, I found in interesting that he recognized that all races could be beautiful. In the Django post it was brought to light that how some slaves were house slaves because they were prettier than the other slaves. 

Most people in later history did not want to acknowledge them period, let alone their beauty. Thomas Jefferson being one that comes from American history. He was so racist he did not believe blacks were even capable of having thoughts or recognizing anything beautiful or create anything that is beautiful. Jefferson and Kant were similar in believing that blacks were not human, but Kant was in a different time and it’s hard to belive that as founding father who was so fervent for independence and freedom could be in favor of slavery. I wonder what what Thomas Jefferson would be saying about Obama being president today.

Bernier and Kant’s interpretation of race was also very set on the church and it’s hard to believe that such a drastic thing like this could be backed up by the church because we are taught to love all. Also the fact that they were the ones to first bring to light that there might be a difference between humans based on the color of their skin.