calbear93;842314357 said:
Racism will become extinct in this world when the human race becomes extinct.
Disagree.
Racism as we know it today is a relatively modern phenomenon: probably beginning around 1500 AD but not really getting set until between 1600-1700.
Of course there was a recognition of differences between races; but there were greater ethnic and cultural distinctions among people. These ethnic and cultural distinctions were usually the defining characteristics of people NOT race.
Likewise each of these societies had slaves and regularly looked down on their slaves. But slavery was not an attribute of race. A slave could be someone from any race. And slavery was no a "permanent" attribute. Children and grandchildren of slaves could become active members of the ruling class over time.
Arab and Turk slave traders were just as eager to capture European Christians and Russians, Slavs and Middle Eastern (all Caucasians) for slaves as to capture African Slaves. In fact the European slaves were preferred since they could be held for higher ransoms.
The Viking raiders also focused mostly on capturing European, Russian, Slavs to be their slaves.
The classical societies (Greek, Roman, Persian) were equal opportunity conquerors of Northern European, Southern European, African, Middle Eastern, and African.
[Note: Roman masters (I) prized African Slaves as musicians and teachers and other intellectual pursuits and (ii) thought that Northern Europeans were not good for intellectual pursuits but good only for hard manual labor and soldiers.]
The Egyptians likewise captured as slaves from Ethiopia but also captured slaves from the North African Coast and from the Middle East.
In each of these societies the slaves were looked down upon as being beneath the ruling classes. But similarly the ruling classes looked down on everyone who was not a member of the ruling class and often looked down on other ethnic groups.
Everything changed only as fewer and fewer Northern Europeans became slaves and as slavery came to mean African Slaves.
As a result the efforts to justify slavery came to be based upon the supposed inferiority of Africans to Northern Europeans. Likewise the supposed superiority of Northern Europeans justified elimination of Native Americans, Native Polynesians and East Indians and Asians.
Race became a very handy justification for genocide and looting the societies discovered.
Hopefully with modern education and with racial diversity we will return to looking down on people only because of their ethnic and cultural differences. :sarc:
