Reply #84: You seem to be only focused on racism in the US, however this is a problem that goes back probably

[dugaresa]

before recorded history.

Something in human nature seems to trigger racial, class or religious superiority.

The Egyptians, Sumerians, Romans, Greeks, Europeans, all have a history of slavery, viewing other groups as being inferior or viewing other folks's beliefs as bizarre or worth contempt.

It isn't something that just happened.

Jews in Europe were reviled for their religion. They were made to live in ghettos in some cities and were in some cases expelled or fled for their lives from countries like Spain. An entire group of productive citizens left a country for fear of their lives and because another religious group viewed them as a threat.

In most cases if you research deeply the threat is either related to money, power or irrational fear.

Let us examine the case of the Jews.

Well they were a group that didn't mingle, they didn't like intermarriage (neither did christians) and they kept to themselves outside business matters. But does that really make them worthy of disrespect? Not in my book.

They looked like other folks in the regions they settled in. So clearly it wasn't their skin color.

Ooooh but go back far enough and you find that the Jews did loan money. Why? Because early Christian doctrine dictated that Usury was forbidden. Loaning money wasn't a money making operation for Christians so Jews were smart to exploit it. However being in ownership of people's debts, can make you the bad guy even if you aren't. Then when some smart Christians realized that the usury laws were dumb, they got rid of them or worked their way around it and then they viewed the Jews as competitors. Is it likely that they used religious differences to help them demonize and dehumanize the Jews. Before you know it you have horrible renditions of Jews in literature and you can manipulate your fellow Christians by giving them a group of people to hate, all because it suits your business purposes. Heck you can even blame them for the Plague while your at it.

Chomsky pointed out some of these very issues in his People's History book. Indentured servants and slaves started to mix, because they saw that they were in a similar situation. Before you know it the slave owners realize that they can't have their slaves thinking they have options and they don't want them mingling with the folks who will eventually be free. So they set up class divides and provide options the the white slaves (indentured servants)can only have and create barriers to make sure that there is truly a division (however made up) to help them keep their unhealthy hold over those folks and keep the slaves in check.

Something about human nature does this, however unhealthy it is and we can't seem to shake it. We really should but history has shown it has been with us for a long long time.