The history of race, the idea that people can be separated into distinct groups based on their physical and/or cultural traits, is a complex one. Historians, sociologists, and archaeologists still debate over the meaning of race and its history. In the West, ideas that could be described as race have appeared in different times and contexts. For example, ancient Greek writers promoted the view of Greeks as the most civilized people, versus non-Greek-speaking people, who were deemed “barbarians.” As Ivan Hannaford wrote in his book Race: The History of an Idea in the West, this concept of race was not biological. Instead, racial difference for the Greeks and for later writers in the West up to the 18th century was explained by culture or by the influence of climate.

The modern idea of race, which is still prevalent, is primarily based on skin color and is intertwined with modern scientific concepts of biology. Late-18th- and 19th-century scientists categorized humans into different racial groups, whose traits were considered inherent. Such ideas were used to justify the enslavement and continued mistreatment of people of African descent in the Americas and elsewhere, while also justifying colonial rule over Indigenous and non-white peoples in the ages to come.