Master Race

Latino scholars say “la raza” means “master race.” The term emerged in Mexico in the 1920s partly in reaction to the “Aryan” concept in soon-to-be Nazi Germany. Aryan means “noble” and was used as a self-designation by Indo-Iranian people.

The term was adopted as a racial category through the work of Arthur de Gobineau, His ideas later influenced the Nazi racial ideology, which also saw “Aryan peoples” as innately superior to other putative racial groups. And yet today people treat groups like “la raza” as if they’re normal.