Episode 6: A Medieval Anti-Racist
Teaching Aid
Teaching Aid for Episode 6: A Medieval Anti-Racist
Teachers: please read the introduction to these teaching aids first.
Pre-Listening Journal/Discussion Questions
Have you heard the term “anti-racist”? If so, in what context did you encounter it? What do you think it might mean to be “anti-racist”? Do you think anti-racism is a modern idea?
Listening Guide
According to the sound byte from Ibram X. Kendi, what does it mean to be “anti-racist”?
Why has this term become contentious?
What can be gained by a historical approach to anti-racism? Why, according to episode producer Terence Sweeney, is it vital to look back to origin points, the earliest sources of both racism and anti-racism?
How does Winthrop Jordan define racism in White over Black?
In what broad sense of the term is “anti-racism” used in this episode?
Bartolomé de Las Casas and a Momentous Question [10:50-21:52]
What two key events in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s early life converted him from a slave-holding colonizer in the Americas to an activist in defense of the rights of the Indigenous people? What particular question from a sermon especially convicted him?
As Bishop of Chiapas in Mexico, which new Catholic standards did Las Casas create?
What were the New Laws that Spanish King Charles I enacted in 1546, at Las Casas’s prompting?
A Nascent Racism [21:53-28:09]
How did Las Casas’s arguments against slavery and oppression ironically prompt a defense of racism from those who opposed his ideas?
What assertions were key in the arguments of men such as Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda who sought to justify colonization and slavery?
A Nascent (Christian) Anti-Racism [28:10-36:48]
What foundational argument for modern racism did Las Casas reject?
While Sepúlveda was using “modern” Enlightenment modes of thinking to justify colonialism and slavery, what were the sources of Las Casas’s argument against these forms of oppression?
How did the medieval tenets of human origin and teleology (or ultimate purpose) inform Las Casas’s arguments against racial hierarchy?
How did Las Casas’s focus on the theological claim of God’s omnipotence support his anti-racist argument and anticipate the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. that “our God is able”?
The Great Debate [36:48-45:02]
What was the end result of the 1550/1551 Valladolid debate between Las Casas and Sepúlveda over whether colonization was justified?
In what ways did Las Casas fail to live up to his own vision of human rights? What was his response to these failures?
Despite this mixed legacy, why is Las Casa still an inspiration for people defending universal human rights today?
From a creative genealogies perspective, why is it important to understand multiple anti-racist approaches? How is the project of looking back at multiple histories of the opposition to racism helpful in the work of overcoming racism in the present (even if we don’t share the same belief systems that laid the foundation for each of those historic oppositions)?
Post-Listening Journal/Discussion Questions
As the podcast acknowledges, “Las Casas’s legacy isn’t unmixed.” In his early years Las Casas was a slave-owner, and in later years, even as he advocated the end of colonization and enslavement of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, he recommended that enslaved people from Africa be brought to work on those same plantations (a recommendation that he later mourned and repented).
Some might claim Las Casas should be “canceled” from our current conversation about anti-racism on the grounds of his own participation in slavery. But the creative genealogies approach of this podcast claims that we can learn valuable lessons from the past, even when that past contains ideas and individuals that are complicated, or don’t map onto our values and beliefs.
What do you think? To what extent should Las Casas’s mixed legacy affect our reception of his activism against slavery and colonization? How much does his later contrition for and repentance of his racist actions matter? If Las Casas should be canceled, why, and what would that involve? And if not, what can we learn from his life and work?
Links for Further Exploration
Title page of a 1552 tract summarizing the debate between Las Casas and Sepúlveda
Excerpts from “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Las Casas
“A Medieval Anti-Racist” (5-minute animated video produced by Genealogies of Modernity)
