The history of modern times is a history of racism. This is evident from the first voyages of discovery through five centuries of colonialism to our globalized present; from centuries of slavery through systems of apartheid to global labor orders; from the first wars of conquest to the genocides of modernity: all these historical movements correspond with the drawing of borders, with the categorization of people into groups and categories. Racisms and concepts of race derive their potency particularly from their close ties to sex: to notions of specific sexual essences of different people and their sexual practices, to the diverse discourse on sex in modernity, as well as to concepts of the inheritance of said essences. 'Race' in the history of modern times could only emerge through its connection to sex.