a renaissance... mostly

The past few weeks I've been doing a good bit of research on Africans and race in Early Modern England. As this is the Renaissance, I associate it with an explosion of culture, art, music, literature, trade, and general expansion. It seems so contrary, then, that race seems to be lumped into the single definition "moor," where if it isn't English White Christian normal, it is "other," and all "other" is lumped together as if it is all the same. Given the emphasis on diversity of, say, art forms, or as a result of trade, I would expect there to be more focus on different cultures and races - even if the Early Modern English didn't appreciate the diversity, I'd at least expect them to acknowledge its existence, even to generate different sets of stereotypes for different elasticities, rather than combining African, Muslim, Turk, Indian, and all other forms of other. I think this came about largely due to pure ignorance - most in Early Modern England had no exposure to racial other, and in fact there's evidence that Africans weren't even in England, at least with any significant presence, until 1660, well after the start of the Early Modern period. Nevertheless, there is exposure enough to generate stereotypes about the "moor," especially as sexually licentious, and therefore evil (unless, of course, cause and effect are reversed, and they are evil, and therefore sexually licentious).