racism did not play a part, because it wasn’t even invented yet.
Racism wasn’t invented before 1536, the year she got beheaded? The Portuguese had already transported the first slave ship to Brazil 10yr earlier, even if we pretend there was complete racial harmony before the transatlantic slave trade began, which is an absolutely insane thing to pretend, that still started before her death. Not to mention the fact that racism (and slavery no less) has been around since long before “transatlantic” was even a concept.
Slavery existed previously, and certainly xenophobia did. Those things are as old as time, nondoubt about it.
But racism is something more specific: it’s an attempt to use pseudoscience to justify how you can simultaneously consider “all people are equal” (a core belief of the age of enlightenment) while also maintaining stark inequality and slavery (an economic reality of the time).
It is different, if color of skin is a relevant part of the context of the story. Having John Brown played by a black man would be equally misleading.
For Anne Boleyn’s story on the other hand, racism did not play a part, because it wasn’t even invented yet.
Did… did you just say racism wasnt a thing in 1530s Tudor England?
…ok hol’ up.
Racism wasn’t invented before 1536, the year she got beheaded? The Portuguese had already transported the first slave ship to Brazil 10yr earlier, even if we pretend there was complete racial harmony before the transatlantic slave trade began, which is an absolutely insane thing to pretend, that still started before her death. Not to mention the fact that racism (and slavery no less) has been around since long before “transatlantic” was even a concept.
Slavery existed previously, and certainly xenophobia did. Those things are as old as time, nondoubt about it. But racism is something more specific: it’s an attempt to use pseudoscience to justify how you can simultaneously consider “all people are equal” (a core belief of the age of enlightenment) while also maintaining stark inequality and slavery (an economic reality of the time).