The radical historical observation that who and what is included in the category "human" has been repeatedly constructed and redrawn. Ancient Greeks constructed humanity as excluding barbarians; Enlightenment thinkers constructed it around "rationality," often excluding colonized peoples; modern law constructs it around the moment of birth. "Humanity" is not a biological fact with fixed moral implications, but a moral club whose membership rules we argue over and rebuild.
*Example: "In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court constructed Dred Scott as non-citizen, ruling Black people could not be part of the American political 'humanity.' The Theory of Constructed Humanity shows that such rulings aren't just wrong applications of a fixed idea; they are active, violent acts of construction—drawing the boundary of the human community to exclude and dominate. Who counts as fully human is the most consequential construction site of all."*
by Abzu Land January 31, 2026
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