How did racism originate?

Question

WHY did it originate?  Why are white people seen as the “default”, why did they earn authority in society?

Accepted Answer

This is more of a research project that a debate question lol. 
Humanity has always divided themselves into in groups and out groups. What has been the in group has varied wildly across time and space. In the ancient world skin color wasn’t much of a concern. What city or area one was from, and what God’s were worshiped were a much bigger deal. 
Ultimately though, it come down to economics built on resource allocation. Whoever has the best shit has the most power. 
Once Western Europe started trying to colonize the entire world, human beings from outside their area of the world who often worshiped different Gods became seen as an economic commodity instead of just different and weird outsiders. 
This was the start of mass genocide of  indigenous peoples and the transatlantic slave trade. While slavery has always existed in some form, this was new and different. It was a commodification of black and brown bodies on a scale the world had never seen before. Racial superiority/inferiority became the justification, and while we fought that whole war about the issue its legacy lives on today. 
White supremacy drenches western civilization, and infects our systems from government to policing to education to healthcare and housing. Nothing will change until we recognize that, and actively root it out.

Answer

Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. That all changed, when the fire nation attacked. 
All jokes aside, that show is an incredibly great showcasing of what actually took place

Answer

Colonization. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is helpful for understanding how Europeans became the colonizers.

Answer

Geographical luck. European societies had larger areas of land that were along a similar latitude and right for large amounts of crops, which also allowed for better animal farming. So these cultures had more “time” to develop other things like bigger weapons and technology on a larger scale. Living with animals like that also made their immune systems get used to animal diseases. So when they traveled with their new technology and ambitions, they fought diseases and weapons that the other societies hadn’t had time or opportunity to make due to geographical location. It wasn’t that Europeans were smarter, in fact many cultures throughout the America’s, Africa, and Asia had developed more art and literature while a lot of European cultures were still illiterate. But resources was what made Europe ultimately gain advantages over the rest of the world. In other words, luck. This is super a simplified version of the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Answer

i believe it was the Spanish Inquisition. 
A lot of anti-semitism existed in Europe at the time, and Spain had the highest population of Jewish people. from what i remember, in the 1,300s a lot of Jewish people were converted to catholicism (New Christians) but tensions still continued between “old christians” and “new christians”. 
in June 1449, the first set of racial disrriminatinatory laws were passed. It barred the “New Christians”, regardless of whether they were sincere Christians, from holding private or public office or receiving land from the church benefices unless they could prove four generations of Christian affiliation.  
The laws, were based off of the racial definition of Judaism as opposed to the religious definition. 
these discriminatory laws also led to the belief of “purity of blood.” this belief was taken literally, at the time Spanish people believe that blood was essential to a persons character. 
it’s pretty awful. When Spain and Portugal took part in the transatlantic slave trade, and the colonisation of South America. the took this idea of blood purity with them. Jewish people, African people, and indigenous people were all seen as having tainted blood, and therefore tainted characters. 
it allowed Spain to justify slavery, colonisation, and viewing POC as lesser than the White Christian standard.

Answer

The concept of race is a product of colonial enterprises of  European powers between the 16th and 18th century. Do I think that other tribes, castes, cultures, etc were aware that other people were different to them? Absolutely. But I highly doubt that any type of slavery or war prior to that was based on race, more so of ‘my collective group of people are better and more worthy than others’. And this would occur between people of the same race and others.

Answer

Our brain’s ability  to discriminate between kin and non kin for survival.
This ability leads to a mental formation of “me” and “other”.  “Me” turns into safe, “Other” turns into fear.
Our brain’s ability to discriminate will likely never go away. But the most evolved parts of our brain allow us to be aware of it and pay attention that it happens.  And through that awareness comes the space to choose.
But we pretend it does happen.

Answer

I think it has a lot to do with maintaining economic inequality. White wealthy landowners were always a minority. One way they kept from being French Revolution-ed was to build a system of hierarchy where no matter your place in society, if you were white, you were better. So even if I'm a poor white sharecropper struggling to feed my family, well at least I'm not a Black sharecropper. And I would be more likely to terrorize the Black sharecropper than to think about working collaboratively to demand better conditions for everyone.
A lot of civil rights leaders were assassinated right after they shifted their speeches from protesting racism alone to criticizing the capitalist system that requires inequality in order to thrive.  Our economy runs on racism.

Answer

Hate.

Answer

Humanity has always classified and segregated based on visible or geographical differences. Even tribes Before Christ would be distrustful or have preconceived notions about those from other tribes. It’s just very much ingrained.

How did racism originate?

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