Before slavery in America, there was no racism in the western world.

That’s according to Professor Dr Lisa Farrington, a professor in the art and music department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She basis this claim largely on evidence she says is seen in art work from different cultures from the ancient Romans and ancient Greeks to the Renaissance era Europeans which depicts people of African heritage in a positive light.

Dr Farrington will give the Partner Re Lecture The World Before Racism tonight at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute(BUEI).

The professor is the author of Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists and Faith Ringold, among others. She frequently lectures about the history of racism as seen through art and reactions from audiences are varied.

“You can’t argue with art,” she said. “It is the truest expression of culture, untainted and unfiltered by modern prejudices.”

Reactions to Dr Farrington’s lecture varies. Sometimes she gets a standing ovation, and sometimes things get very heated. Once, members of the audience at a conservative economics institution became so enraged that she had to be escorted out of the building for her own safety.

“Some people go berserk,” she said. “It comes as a bit of a shock to some. What upsets them is the fact that the lecture veritably disproves Darwinian racial theories that people of African descent are inferior to whites.”

According to Dr Farrington, until the African slave trade began in the early 1600s there were many sculptures, and paintings, in the galleries and art collections of Europe that depicted people of African heritage in a positive light. For example, Lucas Cranach’s 1522 painting of St Maurice, a Roman legionary, shows a black man outfitted in a suit of silver armour trimmed with gold, precious gems, and pearls.

In Ancient Greek mythology Andromeda, the daughter of an Ethiopian king, was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.

“Before the African slave trade Europeans did not believe that Africans were inferior to whites,” said Dr Farrington. “In many cases, they honoured Africans as their cultural, intellectual and military betters. This was particularly true in ancient Greece and in Medieval and Renaissance Germany.”

When the African slave trade grew powerful in the world, these works of art were taken down and stored out of the public eye in museum basements and storage rooms.

“The purpose of removing those paintings from museums or never showing them, I presume, was to advance a racial hierarchy that was necessary to make slavery palatable,” said Dr Farrington. “If you portrayed Africans as Roman dignitaries, or as members of the court of the Queen of Austria, then you would have a problem selling slavery. Proponents of slavery had to delete those references from history and write new references that suited the current political agenda which was to make people think that Africans had no history or valid culture.”

Dr Farrington will speak today at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute(BUEI). There will be a 5.30pm reception and a lecture at 6pm. Tickets are $10 for members and $20 for non-members.