hich the superior race was supposed to conform. From the 18th century onwards, however, the ideal-type and counter-type would not vary much for the next century and a half, now would it matter fundamentally whether the inferior race was black or Jewish (Mosse, 1978, 12).
Blacks were seen as the counter-type to the ideal-type. The ideal-type was white, imbued with Western culture, and Christian. The Christian element is not only what allowed white Europeans to consider blacks and Jews inferior, it also gave them the rationale to see racism almost as a duty, a way to affirm their own superiority and, if possible, civilize and Christianize the heathen Jew or black. In this context, blacks were seen as having been created inferior by God in order to serve whites. The racist views of Joseph Gobineau in an 1853 work "regarding the inferiority and superiority of races were welcomed by many Europeans as well as by Americans who maintained that blacks indeed were inferior and could never function in a civilized society" (Kleg, 1993, 95).
Racism translated easily from Europe to the United States, leading to the establishment of the institution of slavery, because Americans were Europeans, or descendants of Europeans, who had been imbued with racist thought. Slavery was founded for economic reasons in the United States, but it would not have been possible had not the slaveholders been so imbued. Even many of those advocating the end of slavery, such as Abraham Lincoln himself, did not hold that blacks were equal to whites, or deserved such equality.
Sports in the United States is a paradox, for blacks make up a great percentage of the best players in the major sports, but racism still persists in those sports. Again, in large part because of economic necessity, owners employ blacks as players, simply because they are among the best athletes and therefore draw the most fans and bring in the
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