Home > Documentary TV Show > Racism: A History

Racism: A History

2007

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1

EP1 The Colour of Money Mar 21, 2007

The series begins by assessing the implications of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the Americas in the 15th century, it considers how racist ideas and practices developed in key religious and secular institutions, and how they showed up in writings by European philosophers Aristotle and Immanuel Kant.

EP2 Fatal Impacts Mar 28, 2007

Looking at Scientific Racism, invented during the 19th century, an ideology that drew on now discredited practices such as phrenology and provided an ideological justification for racism and slavery. These theories ultimately led to eugenics and Nazi racial policies of the master race. Some upsetting scenes.

EP3 A Savage Legacy Apr 04, 2007

The third and final episode examines the impact of racism in the 20th Century. By 1900, European colonial expansion had reached deep into the heart of Africa. Under the rule of King Leopold II, The Belgian Congo was turned into a vast rubber plantation. Men, women and children who failed to gather their latex quotas would have their limbs dismembered. The country became the scene of one of the century's greatest racial genocides, as an estimated 10 million Africans perished under colonial rule. Contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.
8.4| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Racism: A History is a three-part British documentary series originally broadcast on BBC Four in March 2007. It was part of the season of programmes broadcast on the BBC marking the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807, a landmark piece of legislation which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series explores the impact of racism on a global scale and chronicles the shifts in the perception of race and the history of racism in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. The series was narrated by Sophie Okonedo.

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Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable
2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
einsteininsteadprophets I can't share positive opinions about this very one-sided piece of work. A documentation about history of slavery and racism which doesn't even mention the far more cruel and larger slave-markets of the Islamic world than in America (even Muhammed held slaves and enslaved many men and women) isn't true at all and remembers propagandistic work.Tidiane N'Diaye from Senegal tells in his historical work "Le genocide voilé, Étude de la traite négrière arabic-musulmane" of a minimum number of 17 million Africans as victims of Arab slave trade, outnumbering the transatlantic one by far - and it is said, that only 1 out of 10 men survived the barbaric emasculation and transport across the African desert - done by the Islamic slave-hunters).Fact is, slave markets in Cairo and Constantinopel existed until the beginning of the 20th century - and were closed only under pressure of the public opinion of the western Christian-inspired world and the strength of democratic powers like France and GB!
m-ozfirat This series is absolutely informative and powerful and done with great frankness. It tells you the story of the origins of racism and the origins of it from the very dawn of European culture. It covers how Europe in the modern era became the global power and how ancient ideas combined with modern techniques influenced European attitudes to people different from themselves at various stages in time from the American Indians to the slave trade and colonialism and the real motivations of the "abolitionists" by which slavery transformed in to colonialism from economic practicality to political ideology and how aspects of traditional culture and nascent science developed European attitudes. It also gets more controversial as the series goes on in to the modern era and the present such as the eugenics movement and its influence and impact in shaping Nazism by which many have a naive and isolate understanding of and the various atrocities. The BBC does excellent documentaries as they do not go with the conventional subjects or have Junior attitudes in their content of making documentaries. The reason why i have given it a 9 is an extra episode could of been about Orientalism making the series in a wider context more informative and scrupulously structured on wider issues of racism rather then just in a colonial context.
reynirorn Racism: A History was made by the BBC in 2007... and frankly, I am stunned to see the low amount of attention it's getting. It covers an immensely important subject matter, it cuts through the veils of censorship and history-whitewashing and illuminates SO much that you never heard from anywhere else! By watching this miniseries, you will learn about the history, and the current situation, of blacks in the United States. You will learn about the impact that European colonialism has had on Africa and other parts of the world. You will learn that slavery continued all over the world, in slightly subtler forms, long after the so-called abolition of slavery. Most interestingly, you will learn that the situation of U.S. blacks actually got much WORSE after the abolition of slavery in the U.S., and you will learn the interesting (and scary) fact that Nazism wasn't an isolated aberration, but part of a global continuum (namely scientific racism and eugenics).Anyway, this is a MUST see miniseries. It's made by the BBC so you'll have no problems seeing it legally online. Just google if you don't believe me.P.S. You'll probably find the first episode a lot more boring than the others. Don't give up, at least see what episode 2 is about!