Race has played a vital role in many social constructs, including colonialization, imperialism, nation-building, and social injustice. Colonialization was not a determining factor because people lived in these soon-to-be colonized countries with their governments and ways of life. However, the idea of supremacy took a toll on many imperialists who believed that some people were undeserving of their lands and resources because their race defined them. Almost all colonialists were white, and a significant percentage of colonialized lands were in Africa. This explains a lot about how the whites thought about Africans and why they needed to be colonialized.
During the post-slavery United States, the general public was not contented with the view of racial equality. Classification of people based on their skin color was standard in many states. Some state laws upheld racialization, an act of assigning racial qualities to an individual, suggesting that race, as a social construct, is a product of human invention. Although she provided a firm argument in her lawsuit, she lost against the Louisiana Bureau of Vital Records. Phipps did not want to identify as an inferior being in a white imperial society.
Contrary to this perception, race was a determinant for nation-building and imperialism. For instance, Benjamin Franklin and his quest for nation-building, which gave birth to the independent United States, was based on race. From Franklin’s perspective, race is an instrument of national and personal progress. A nation can be developed with a collective increase in number, territory, strength, and commercial prosperity. In this respect, race is an instrument of imperial supremacy as it can only mobilize believers into a path towards freedom and nation-building.