Theorising Race and Space in a Transnational Context

This paper argues that racism is a European invention instituted through the project of colonialism. Decolonial authors locate the origin of racism in the 15th century, as a result of Europe’s exploration of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the moment of encounter between Europeans and Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the enslavement of Africans, the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from the South of Europe, and the emergence of the capitalist world system and modernity.