How did racism start?

[Soubriquet]

Just watching American Horror Story:Coven and seeing how they react to black people just made me ponder it. I know it’s a fiction story, but I also know people used to act like that and worse.

How did racism originally start? I mean, what made white people think they were the superior species?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

"Racism is a relatively modern concept, arising in the European age of imperialism, the subsequent growth of capitalism, and especially the Atlantic slave trade"

I read that racism was invented to make slavery acceptable. Once I had read that.it kind of fell into place that the two were linked.

I sort of get the slavery side. They had to believe that black people were lower on the totem pole so it was ok to have them as slaves. I get that. But why? I mean, I know people, especially the higher people wanted servants and slaves to keep their house clean etc etc, but why black people?

Its shocking how the human mind works

It's a good question. I think racism always existed in one form or another, people always feared and disliked those that were different but it's interesting that the dominant one is the white supremacy version. I think it went beyond slavery though, Europeans for example didn't take African slaves but thought it was OK to invade and colonise African countries.

I think it's just circumstance. Europeans benefitted from milder weather conditions meaning less famine, drought and disease to contend with. So they had more time and wealth to go around colonising places with the ridiculous mindset that they were superior to other people.

Black people were the minority, they looked different hair and facial features. I think some were probably very jealous deep down and as a result were horrid to the slaves.

I suspect that as species we have always been racist in the sense that we would fear/ reject those who did not look like us/ came from other places/ had different customs. Initially it would have been purely about survival. I should think that individual tribes in continents like Africa and the Americas would have equally been as brutal to those from differing tribes and would have practiced a form of ‘racism’s going over millennia.
I agree with the pp that those with whiter skins generally came from more ‘beneficial’ climates and were able to accrue more wealth high enabled them to explore/ conquer.

I don’t know how it started - I’m not that old or as good a student of history though.

I can see it resurging though - right before my eyes - and the n lots of different ways and against different communities.

Yes that's probably it originally, but it's interesting that it developed into something more deep seated. I'm Irish and we were also colonised and treated brutally for so long, even after independence the racism lingered for another few generations in the UK but not so much anywhere else and now it's (I believe) a thing of the past. Yet it still exists for black people. It's an interesting comparison I think. Why the difference??

It’s very strange how people reason stuff like this. I mean, I know some people still hate anyone who has ginger hair.

I have a friend who has gorgeous ginger hair but she received so many bad insults over it.

@LaMaG good points you have picked upon about the Irish. The Irish today still look more English than a black person. This sounds awful so excuse my poor wording buy even today even if you have white/olive/light skin tone of black skin this is always preferable and this is imparticular within the black community amongst my own people too.

The trouble is if you are black straight away people can visually see you don't originate from England even if you have lived in UK all your life. People will often say but where are you from? I don't recall white people asking their own people where they are from.... why is that?

Surely racism is just an example of the human tendency to 'other' (for want of a better word) anyone who appears to be different.

When populations were homogeneous racism, I assume didn't exist - you'd be making assumptions about the 'stranger' from the next town instead who dressed and talked differently to you.

Once people of different races arrived they became the focus of assumptions based on their race etc etc

Modern racism originates in European colonialism, as PP noted. European colonisers could make enormous profits in the Americas from gold/silver mines and giant plantations (sugar, cotton, tobacco etc). However those profits were dependent on having a huge and cheap labour force that could be brutally treated. There weren't enough locals to enslave (because the Europeans' arrival killed off about 90% of the indigenous population). Importing indentured labour from Europe didn't work. So the solution was enslaving Africans. The Europeans already had colonial bases in West Africa and there were already slave trading networks there (though slavery in Africa was extremely different to what emerged in the Americas). So it was relatively easy to redirect that slave trade across the Atlantic.

As PP noted, the belief that black and indigenous peoples are inferior to whites helps justify slavery and genocide. Not just in the Americas but within slave trading and colonising nations like the UK.

In the 19th century this is all given a boost by the emergence of Darwinism, which was used to argue that there is a hierarchy of races ('scientific racism') which justified the expansion of European colonialism across the entire globe.

That's a very simplified version anyway!

Remember other nations colonised as well as the Europeans like the Ottoman Empire or the Arabs

However the slave trade was awful

Black and British by David Olusoga answers this question and is well worth reading

Also Anti semitism

There's a very interesting line of historical research that argues that the Irish essentially 'became more white' over time. If you look at very old British depictions of the Irish, they are portrayed as practically sub-human and barely above 'the African races', but over time they manage to rise up that 'hierarchy of races' to become 'more white'. This is partly because of that influence of Darwinist thinking which places a great deal of emphasis on physical characteristics like skin colour.

Why? Money. If you can believe that a person of a different race is lesser than you, then you can treat them as a commodity and deny their humanity.

and now it's (I believe) a thing of the past
It certainly isn't if you happen to be an Irish Traveller...

Dear me, people here seem a tenuous grasp of history. First there has always been slavery and there are still millions in the world today. All ancient civilisations had slaves, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks etc, usually enemies captured whilst fighting. There were European slaves in the past vikings, Anglo Saxons etc.

Africans also had slaves they captured whilst fighting. Many were sold to Arab slave traders long before the Europeans arrived.

people have been invading and fighting each other since time started, Mongols and Romans to name but two.

why do you think Europeans are they only one to conquer countries and own slaves, apart from current obsessions?

I find it fascinating but appalling. I've read on here over the years that there is racism between black and Asian people. Why is that?

Often Asian's lived in Africa. Think of the situation with Idi Amin in Uganda

There's some interesting research on how it's a biological response. They took children of different races with common language and same race but different languages to see who they would share resources with (in this case scissors and glue, in cave man days food and tools) and the children were all more likely to share with other children who looked like them.

It's the same principle though isn't it? Modern slavery is usually women and children trafficked into the sex industry, and incredibly poor young men trafficked for manual labor. In both cases it's the 'othering' of women and the poor not mattering.

It starts with ethnocentric ideas. If you believe your people are superior/ the chosen ones then you judge other people by the things that are valued in your culture. If large buildings show wealth you may respect the ancient Egyptians but not recognise wealth in culture where cattle are a primary indicator. The leader of a large and complex society may be perceived as simply a farmer or herdsman.
If your society focuses on book learning then oral traditions become primitive folk stories rather than sophisticated oral history etc.