"Race" had become a social phenomenon. Soon, a belief of white superiority had arisen, and a belief of black inferiority had taken hold. Theories of racial history were transformed into theories of world history. Facts that did not fit the racial worldview of racial superiority were obfuscated. Great historical figures such as Genghis Kahn, Confucius, and Attila the Hun were all considered to be "pure" Caucasians. Explanations for advanced social systems in Africa were predicated on the belief of Caucasian mixture in the aristocratic or ruling elements. From the mid-nineteenth century and on, science began to prove biological evidence further anchoring the belief of white superiority. A popular "science" about human mental processes in relation to associated features of the skull or cranium further "proved" racial superiority, with "whites" superior to all others: "that of the white being oval, that of the Indian cylindrical, and that of the Negro "eccentrically elliptical"." (Stanton 31). This so-called science (phrenology) issued in a new era that granted "races" a biological reality. Phrenology inspired scientists to study skulls for the purpose of assessing character, personality, and talents of ethnic populations (Smedley 232). While one may have believed that the scientists of the time would disprove such a fictional science, the exact opposite occurred. Highly esteemed scientists not only helped phrenology to sound factual based, but each added their own input as to why ethnic peoples differed so greatly in the hierarchal chain compared to the so-called superior Caucasian race. Once white superiority had anchored itself to the social construct, associations with it came into existence.
Racial superiority reified and assimilated into folk culture because enviable traits such as progress and empire building became associated with the term. The idea of pure white people and culture was one of the major socioculutral themes to blossom on the American continent.
