What is Racism?

Racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.

Some refer to racism as white supremacism, the belief that the Caucasian race is superior to all other races. Others define racism as discrimination against a particular race’s culture, beliefs or traditions. Racism is not exclusively the province of the Caucasian race. Racism between different racial groups is quite prevalent in areas where two groups of different races exist. For example, the rivalry between Asian and Black street gangs in urban America can be tied to racial tensions that have existed for many decades.

This belief was not "automatic": that is, Africans were not originally considered inferior. When Portuguese sailors first explored Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, they came upon empires and cities as advanced as their own, and they considered Africans to be serious rivals. Over time, though, as African civilizations failed to match the technological advances of Europe, and the major European powers began to plunder the continent and forcibly remove its inhabitants to work as slave laborers in new colonies across the Atlantic, Africans came to be seen as a deficient "species," as "savages." To an important extent, this view was necessary to justify the slave trade at a time when Western culture had begun to promote individual rights and human equality. The willingness of some Africans to sell other Africans to European slave traders also led to claims of savagery, based on the false belief that the "dark people" were all kinsmen, all part of one society - as opposed to many different, sometimes warring nations.

Sources:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-racism.htm

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCGeDjFGJzUb4SpbJw1YtyajdNJKcIcOjgOjehHSe9PITkMQ-8zB0GIIZaQKoLbXdc5iWiLKMDTKH5qtMjEEk0told565eqeDSNeyuwzAejlu5C5ox_Nj_-D0zAjgov_lAdGOTJcK0wKM/s400/racismo.jpg