Only if you define racism as black vs. whites. Humans have tended to look down upon other humans who are different, who look different, or act differently from themselves forever.
Not...not only. In agreement with what you stated above, Claude Levi-Straus (anthropologist) argues that "
All people have always felt themselves superior to others." In this sense we can come to the comfortable position that this means that "racism" must have always existed.
But another anthropoligists, Michel Leiris, argues that if we look at different societies in history we can't just make this easy assumption. "
Many societies have displayed themselves with some group pride, but while the group regards itself as superior or priviledged compared with other groups, it makes no "racist" claims and, for instance, is not above entering into temporary alliances with other groups or providing itself with women from them."
If we turn to the Mediterranean world, where there was considerable amount of contact with lighter skinned people in the North and darker people in the south, racism is difficult to find. Black people, especially, were viewed favorably by the anchient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. Even Moses married a Nubian woman for which the book of Numbers (somewhere) of the Bible stated that the "
anger of the lord was aroused against those who objected."
1) The anchient Greeks called some of their neighbors "barbarians" but that was only because they could not speak Greek.
2) When Alexander the Great conquered Persia and India, ten thousand Greek soldiers married Hindu Indian women.
3) In the Roman Empire, Roman slaves came from captured peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe. In other words, slavery for the Romans was a matter of equal opportunity for all.
4) In the late Middle Ages, European slaves were taken increasingly from areas north and west of the Caucusus.
The identity of slavery to solely mean black Africans rose and originated in the Muslim world and North Africa. It was made illegal in this region (by the Qu'ran) to enslave a Jew or a Christian. What was left to fill the positions of slaves? As slaves from this region began to be exported to foriegn nations and regions, slavery became increasingly synonymous to the black skin color. After centuries had passed the Atlantic slave trade identified black Africans as the slave. Now it is important to recognize that in the end, slavery was abolished throughout the world where blacks were used, but only in the U.S. was there a predominant society crushing "racist" phenomena developed. This was a result of capitalism and protestant prescription (The Catholic church prescribed that black slaves in the Americas were to be taught Christianity, while the Protestant prescription was to treat them as beneath Christiandom and therefore "evil.") Whites viewed blacks as meaning one thing.... - inferior, ignorant, unable to understand morality, and forever heathen.
Fast forward to the twentieth century. Nazi Germany altered the slave's identity to meaning Jew. They did not seek the poor as in anchient worlds. They did not seek a certain skin color as in the Atlantic Slave Trade. They sought a specific ethnic identity, which is why their brand of slavery has been argued to be "racism," though not because of skin color. Of course, scapegoating Jews had been an historical thing for Europeans, so the leap into slavery and butchery was inevitable.
You are confusing group pride, which may be maintained by a tribe over another, with racism, which is typically about a certain skin color or entire race.
That's what racism really is, the human tendency to look on anyone who is different from themselves as inferior to themselves.
No it is not. This is just a simple guide line for people who are afraid of being tagged a racist. I have been inside many different cultures and populations in many third world countries and I know without a doubt that I (and many others) am superior to many....not because of skin color...but because of situation and circumstance. For example....Somalia is full of the wretched, the diseases, and the hopeless, yet there also exists an internationally recognized Somali Super Model who maintains a sort of superiority towards others. Another example would be Ethiopia. A population full of the uneducated and under priviledged, yet every Summer Olympics prove their superiority on the track. And is there not a sense of superiority in the world in terms of invention and ingenuity and the parts of the world where it comes from?
The best way to break through this "everything is racism" barrier is to imagine a scenario where the world is about to explode and you have one life boat into space that can seat 100 people. Shall we choose from among the brightest and the most intellegent (which would mostly all come from the European/American/Asian theatre) or will we refrain from the "racist" stigma and head to Africa?
This is that politicially correct hinderance that has people afraid to talk about others and fearful of any analytical work. It's this fear of "racism" that has people scared to say "blacks"...er..."African Americans"....er.....etc.