Discussion

1. First, watch the required videos, review power points, and complete the assigned readings for the week.
2. Reflect on how we now know that race is a social construct meaning that while we may have differences in appearance and heritage, human beings are genetically the same species. Historically, however, for many centuries people used the idea of biological racial difference rooted in scientific racism to justify laws, policies, economic structures (like slavery), and different treatment of individuals based on their racial identity.
3. In a 400-word minimum post, describe how ideas of race, racial differences, and the history of scientific racism impacted how the United States and European countries viewed independent nations in Latin America, like Panama and Haiti. Also, please address how the notion of “Western Civilization” continued to perpetuate these ideas?

**READINGS

-ERASED chapter 1

-HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA chapter 3