Racism has been part of our society since the beginning of human history. Whichever kingdom conquered another it created a sense of superiority to the rulers against the people that they ruled.
In ancient times there was no such thing as the type of racism that we know today. E.g. slavery was diverse…slaves had different types of skin colour. They were either born slaves, or sold as slaves, or they were just prisoners of war.
Ancient Greece:
One of the first forms of discrimination that we see in history is in ancient Greece, As the Greeks colonized the coasts of the Mediterranean sea where they met local populations (Scythians, Celts, Iberians, etc). The ancient Greeks use to call the non Greeks as barbarians because they didn’t speak the greek language.
Racism in ancient Rome:
The Romans considered themselves as the successors of the ancient Greek civilization. As they expanded to dominate the ancient world, they enforced a strategic expansion by propagating the idea that they were the civilized and the enemy were the uncivilized barbarians. When christianity became the official religion of the empire, the roman propaganda continued by changing the terms. The Christian Romans were the faithful and the non Christians were the infidels.
India:
I have met a lot of Indians that tend to have a sense that “whiter is better”. The indians were conquered many times by empires who were of whiter skin who became their rulers (Greeks, Scythians, Mongols, British etc), today many people of India now believe that whoever is of lighter skin is also of higher status. Racism in India was built based on conquests.
Racism in the Americas:
As the european kingdoms (Spain, Portugal) started exploring the world to find new lands and establish colonies they frowned upon the natives of Central and South America considering them as inferiors. Thus creating three casts in which the Europeans were on the top of society, then it was the people of mixed race and down below were the natives.
USA government treated harshly the natives in Northern America with a belief in white supremacy and superiority causing their cultural genocide and also committing bloody massacres and atrocities since 1776.
Canada established residential schools for the native children to “civilize them” simply by separating them from their families and putting them in horrific conditions, malnutrition, abuse and complete disregard of their own identity.
Colonial Imperialism in Africa:
France and England were at the forefront of the imperialism in Africa and established black slavery. Black Africans were oppressed, abused and killed. To support their imperial campaigns they established a political agenda that the african people are infidels and needed to be christianized and also that they were considered primitive and needed to become civilized.
Darwin and Imperialism:
Charles Darwin wrote the theory of evolution, that human beings evolved from the ape, this theory changed a lot in science. But the agenda of the European Imperialism remained the same. They adopted the theory for their motives. Going from “the civilized and faithful christians against the uncivilized infidels”, the europeans defined themselves as the the evolved species and the people of (America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc) as the primitives that were closer to the ape.
Racism today:
Today, racism is all over the world. In one form or the other. E.g. In Africa lot of black africans look down on themselves due to their skin colour, they were taught by the rest of the world to use racism even between themselves (if a black african is of lighter skin they compare themselves to the one next to them who is of darker skin, they frown upon him/her). There are even african people who try to find white skinned husbands and wives in order to give their offsprings a better chance of life. Their skin colour still gives them limitations all around the world and many of them have to work a lot harder most of the times than other white caucasian people in order to get an education, a professional or social status.
Breaking the myth:
Racism is a myth, it has been outdated since the beginning of time. We are the ones that created this illusion mainly for cultural, political and economical reasons, there is no such thing as four races, there is only the human race! There is no such thing as racial supremacy and superiority. All cultures have contributed to the world civilization. So in order to get along with each other, we need to discover ourselves of who we are ethnically, culturally and personally to gain humility and elevation.
Breaking down skin colour:
Today, racial discrimination is worldwide. But here is the thing…!
Some people are simply darker because their skin has adapted to the sun (e.g. Africans, Indians). Humans adapt to the environment, the food, the weather, in order to survive. Humans throughout time constantly migrated for survival and for a better way of life and their features and skin colour changed because of the new environments they have entered as we went from one place to the other. This is why the northern Hemisphere people are light skinned due to the lack of sun.
The only place where there is no racism at all is Antarctica! 😛
I don’t know what opinion do the penguins have about this, you ll have to ask them lol.
Yours in Prayer
John Kakalas
