Maybe this is a crazy question, but how did Europeans know what Africans looked like? I know that some of the paintings here are of North Africans/Middle Easterners, but others clearly depict people born south of the Sahara. I've heard of Prester John but I never imagined that medieval Europeans were aware that Prester John would have had brown skin. Am I missing something?
Like. There are a lot of things I could say here. But Iβm just going to do my best to answer your question, and the answer is either very simple or very complicated, depending on your current point of view.
1. βTheyβ knew what people with brown skin looked like because people with brown skin had been there literally THE ENTIRE TIME. Some (and father back, ALL) of βthemβ had brown skin themselves.
2. βPeople with Brown Skinβ and βEuropeansβ are not separate and mutually exclusive groups.
3. No matter how far back you go, the mythical time that youβre looking for, when all-white, racially and culturally isolated Europe was βrealβ, will continue to recede from your grasp until it winkles out the like imaginary place it is.
We can just keep going back. In every area, from all walks of life, rich and poor, kings and peasants, artists and iconoclasts, before there were countries and continents, before there were white people.
Switzerland, c. 1800:Β [fixed link here]
Scotland, England, France, 1280s:
Throughout Europe, 800s-500s:
Crete (Minoan), 1600Β B.C.:
Crete (Minoan), early 2000s B.C.:
The time when βEVERYONEβ in Europe was White does not exist. They knew what people with brown skin looked like because they were there. They knew what βAfricansβ looked like because they were there, and they werenβt βtheyβ, they were us, or you. I think what youβre missing is something that never existed.
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