What is racism | Rasismens opphav og historie | Analyse

Innledning
Racism is one of the biggest social problems in the West today. Every day, even right now, people get harrassed, beaten and killed because of the color of their skin. But has it always been this way? Is racism an evil we never will get rid of? And what is racism?

If you look up the word ´racism´ in a dictionary, you will probably find something similar to the following entry: ”Discrimination or prejudice based on race.”

This short explanation suits well with my(and most others) definition, but it is important to remember that you can find many forms of racism, and the degree of racism varies.

Racism is a modern phenomenon. That doesn’t mean ethnic minorities didn’t suffer earlier in history, but the ideas behind the suppression they were exposed to was different from those of racism. Racism was born when imperialism and capitalism grew forward.

The imperialists justified their robbing of third world countries with racist ideas. For example, they tried to convince Europeans and Americans that African people were inferior in intelligence, and therefor suited perfectly as slaves.

Their black skin was also looked upon as the opposite of Christian ”lightness” and ”whiteness”. Imperialism, which laid the foundation for capitalism, was dependent on racism in order to exist.

Utdrag
While it was possible to convert from the Mosaic faith in the Middle Ages, it was impossible to convert from the inheritaged ethnicity as a Jew in Nazi-Germany. It was enough to have a Jewish grandfather to get gassed by the Nazis.

It is the idea that people are different based on inherited qualities that distinguishes modern racism. Scientifically that is a false idea. There are far more genetical dissimilarities between individuals within an ethnic group than it is between races.

But an ideology doesn’t have to be logical to be strong. The idea that some were naturally superior – that there was a hierarchy of different races – arose as a justification of one of a few parts of history that can challenge Holocaust when it comes to Mankind’s cruelty against Mankind: the slavery.