What is the source of European racism?

Question

Don't say ignorance, hatefulness, or stupidity-that is obvious. I want to know the source of the racism as well as the ignorance.

Anyone know anything about it?

Answer 1

A lot of it was brought in to justify slavery when we were carting Africans off  to the plantations.

Prior to that no one was particularly bothered. It was driven by economics more than anything. It's probably why racism is more of an issue in America, Europe never had so many slaves on it's soil that it felt the need to keep on top of them as harshly.

Most of the freed slaves in Europe just married into white society, and some managed to do quite well for themselves and made it into 'polite society'.

Answer 2

I wouldn't call it racism or even arrogance. I truly believe the answer is from within our borders. The United states is one of (if not the only) nation in history to have a global reach. Think about it: Even though the Euro is stronger than the dollar most financial transactions and foreign markets work by the dollar. Everything we do is widely disseminated to every other nation, not to mention that As one of the super powers we interact whether positive or negative with every other country. Our leaders however, are corrupt and have turned us in the wrong direction, which gives the US a pretty bad public Image. I can see why people from other countries don't want to trust us, or hold grudges against us. Think about it from their point of view: would you want to trust a nation thats constantly heading in the wrong direction?

Answer 3

I think if people wanted to be truly honest re "racism" at it's simplest point:  black v. white (and even with the idea of political correctness re not stereotyping those who look different) I believe it all comes down to the simple level of family and gut feelings.   Say the parents of a white girl just imagining the idea of their daughter mating with a black man and vice versa a black daughter with a white man.  That mental pictures like this are perhaps distasteful to the parents plus the idea of mixed race children.  I actually think this down to earth example is what really sparks biased views of those who do not fit the bill on the family's expectations of skin colour, looks etc.

Answer 4

It all goes back to power.

I'm going to explain this from an American angle, because I know more about it, but it works for Europe, too.  So, when we got over here, there was this awesome, huge continent, ready for us to settle.  Problem was, it was already settled.  In areas where there was enough room, for whatever reason (usually smallpox), for European settlers to farm, relationships between Natives and Europeans could be anywhere from tense to amicable.  It was when they had something that we wanted- land, gold- that it got bad.  When you're at war with someone, _especially_ when your war is not exactly just or right, the best way to keep morale up and to get the okay from your government and the rest of your citizenry is to demonize your opponents.  It's kind of funny, in a horribly tragic way, to read about the way colonial opinions of Natives changed in a very short time.  One person could go from claiming they were hardworking, industrious, honest people to lazy, bestial, and stupid.  What changed?  Our population, and our desire for more land and resources.  So much for the Native Americans.  What we did with blacks is very similar.  There's a reason, though, that they regularly come in as America's most hated minority.  Since we enslaved them, we had to do what we did to Natives times ten.  The Natives were obviously useless, so whatever.  We sent them off west with smallpox blankets, so out of sight and all.  Black people, though, we had to demonize to the extent that even people with intimate, friendly relationships with their slaves would continue to think that they were stupid, lazy, and childlike.  The rich guys also were afraid that the black slaves and the white indentured servants and poor, who had a lot more in common with each other, might unite against them.  To keep the power structure in place, those two oppressed groups had to hate and mistrust one another.  Heh, sounds an awful lot like what's still going on today, eh?

Other minority groups are hated for messing with the power structure in different ways.  For instance, the current "problems" with immigration- a "problem" we've experienced over and over, people.  We've hated the Hispanics, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Irish (but they're white, so once we got more different kinds of people to hate, they got off the hook) coming over because they'd "steal our jobs".  That sounds like being worried that they'll disturb current power structures to me.  Our rich people also learned with their successes with poor white vs. blacks.  If you can keep the poor, who outnumber the rich by a whole lot, too busy hating each other, then they won't get together and realize how much all of them hate _you_.  See every cable news story about the Horrible Immigration Crisis and How Mexicans Are Destroying Our Country.

I'm pretty sure that this is what happens in Europe, too, as well as in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and everywhere else.  I haven't gotten very far in "The People's History of the United States", but it gives a pretty good rundown of early American racial politics and how it changed.  It's totally what gelled this all for me.

Answer 5

The source of any racism is fear. The Europeans were scared of the African's and Native American's because their culture mystified them, and scared them, so they overcompensated by declaring that they were better and proved it in massacres and slavery and colonization. This also applies to religion, etc. Hope this helped.

Answer 6

The evolution of the cultures sample that the phenomenon of racism finds its foundation in the conception that the men have of the diversity. Of it they give to clear testimony the xenophobia feelings that untie the ethnic or tribal fights. In old Greece the affirmation of a collective identity by opposition to some ethnic groups and certain groups of population, was translated in the fact that the inhabitants of the cities called ' bárbaros' to that they lived outside the limits of the Greek world. The old practice of the slavery and the servitude also illustrates the relations of dominion that have existed during history in ethnic groups and different towns, or even within cultural societies and groups. Gentlemen and slaves could belong to a same ethnic origin, but the social differences were clearly noticeable: the slaves did not have right, not even the one of citizenship. The same rule was applied to the towns overcome in the war and reduced to the slavery. This last example, in which the oppression is exerted on specific human groups, culturally different from its opresores, corresponds with racist theses formulated at the modern time and its practice. The first colonizations mark the principle of the servitude of specific ethnic groups who were going to become dominated towns, forced to incline before an external will. When extending colonialism, Europe arrogó a cultural mission, adopting like ideological vocation the social and religious education of the called towns ' salvajes' , whose culture systematically was ignored and led the disappearance. The scientific and technical progress that took place in Europe contributed to reinforce the feeling of superiority of the western ones, that considered their natural and inherent supremacy like to their civilization. The colonization of North America and the South, as well as the one of Australia between centuries XVII and XVIII, the colonialista policy of Japan at the beginning of century XX or the Holocausto in Europe, they are other so many examples of racism.

Answer 7

im mexican and i heard the spainsh dont like us because we are of mixed blood but i think its because euorpe thinks its better then every one else more enlighteneted

Answer 8

You

Answer 9

I'll direct you to a book.  Yurugu: An African Centered Critique Of European Cultural Thought And Behavior.

I promise it'll answer your questions.

Answer 10

the main reason i understand is because people think they are superior to anyone who is not like them... the notion of 'them' and 'us', leads to people looking at all the negatives against a nation while ignoring the negatives of their own, therefore stereotyping occures.

hope this unravels some parts of your question

Answer 11

The source is simple and it isn't limited to Europeans.  Every group of people that haven't be subjugated have many that believe they are superior to everyone else.   It is because they know their cultural beliefs better than everyone else in the world.  How could they know if other peoples ideas, ways or characteristics are better.  It they did, they would adopt them.  Their way is all they know and it is what they consider the ideal human.

Answer 12

"xenophobia" or suspicion of others that are different than your own group is an instinct in most(probably all) animals.

most isolated human society's or groups call themselves the people or the true people. and regard anyone who looks or acts different as inferior.

this is initially true of all human ethnic groups on every continent.

groups that are subjugated sometimes gradually come to regard themselves as inferior to the dominating group after a few generations.

Answer 13

The same as racism anywhere.....IGNORANCE!

Answer 14

What a massive question! I'll attempt some.

The consideration of blacks as inferior as a hangover from the slave trade.

Most of Europe's major countries had an empire and subjugated Africans, Arabs, Indians, native Australasians etc.

a few egs:

France: Morocco, Guyana.

UK: India,South Africa, Zimbabwe.

Holland: South Africa.

Belgium: Congo.

Portugal: Goa.

Following the break-up of these empires, many people hav immigrated into the conquering country.

E.g. France has a large arab population while there are many  Afro-caribbeans and pakistanis and indians living in the UK.

Many of these immigrant populations become ghettoized and  the first generations do not integrate well as they have cultural and language differences, and this causes social friction.  second generations tend to be naturalised to speaking the language and understand the culture of the country they were born in, and so this social friction tends to lessen over time (e.g. large jamaican immigration to London in the 50s and 60s.  Now there are lots of black culturally english people).  Ghettos and faith/culturally single race schools do still highlight the differences between cultures though.  There is an exception to this which is the muslim communities principally in the UK, Holland and France, in which due to their religious teachings have received criticism for a perception that they are failing to integrate very well even when into their second.   and third generations.  This is of course untrue for all European muslims, and this perception may be falsely exacerbated by acts of terror by certain elements of the muslim community, and a general fear from the muslim community that they are being persecuted for the acts of others, leading them to treat the indigenous population with less trust and respect.

If you are referring to the attitude of Europeans towards Americans, I can assure you that it is the Europeans that think that Americans are racist (you won't see a European referring to an Arab as a "towel-head" on a forum very often for example), but it seems socially acceptable for the Americans to do to.  Same for their treatment of Afro-carribeans in the forums, in which they seem to imply that they are all criminals (I don't know about America's problems, only been there once, but the black guys in Europe are certainly not all criminals.  Comes down to an all pervading subconscious social racism if black guys really can't even get a cab or offered a decent job in the States, although I am sure it is just exaggerated in the forums).

Answer 15

All racism has its ultimate source in human in group/out group psychology.