Americans seem to believe that everyone in the world has the
same race problem they do. Regardless of the evidence or how
it deviates from expectation, Americans interpret it to match
their assumption.
Malcolm X, on his pilgrimage to Mecca, was astounded by the
fact that Muslims were Muslims, whatever color or ethnicity.
He expected them to look at him as a "Negro", but all they
saw was a brother Muslim.
Because he realized the brainwashing he experienced in
America, (by both black and white), did not accurately
portray reality, he became a liability to those who wished
to maintain the fallacy.
Over forty years later, a conference on "Racism" was to be
held in Africa. It was changed to "Ethnicity" simply because
the philosophy of racism did not exist in Africa.
Racism is a philosophy of new vintage. Those who would to
explore the basis can turn to Potter's theory of linguistics
enlarged upon by DeGobineau.
Racism was developed to create a logical basis for the
African slave trade which was being practiced at the time.
It can not be overstated; racism did not exist when
Shakespeare wrote his plays. Hence we are looking at
a philosophy which is relatively new in human history,
only taking real form in the eighteenth century, limited
to those who needed a justification for slavery and
perpetuated today by those who seem unable to appreciate
it is neither of long vintage nor widespread.
Racism, as any class/caste philosophy is part of the divide
and conquer mentality.
For example, a person born in Europe in the sixteen hundreds
knew his "place". He was of a particular class and his
options predetermined.
Although the serf was of the same race and might share
the genes of the Baron, he was treated as property.
It was not skin color which determined who was master
and who was slave; it was birth.
History reveals the thousands of years in which people were
'tied' to the land in Europe, and were purchased with
the property.
It was not until the Plague in the 1300s when so many people
died that the serfs were able to walk off the land, go to
towns and find employment.
To believe only Africans were slaves is to repudiate
thousands of years of history.
Circassian slaves, mentioned often in historical documents,
were from the Caucus mountains in Europe. They were white,
in many cases blond.
Harems in the middle east and Africa were full of these
slaves. So it's very true to say that there was a time
in history that Africans owned Europeans.
However, the idea that the European slave was inferior to
the African master had no requirement as Africans did not
need to "justify" slavery.
Losing a war, for example, meant the conquered became slaves
of the conqueror. The Hebrews who went into Egypt to escape
a famine became slaves to the Pharaohs. The Greeks took slaves
from every corner of their world.
The difference, of course, is that there was no sense that
the conquered were inferior to the conqueror, for there
was no need to find intellectual basis for enslavement.
What has happened in America is that the need to justify why
Africans were enslaved created the philosophy of inferiority.
This philosophy permeates so much of the American psyche,
both black and white, it is almost unconquerable.
Writing about a business, for example, the instant inference
in America is that the boss is white. Persons holding front
desk positions are white. Blacks clean and hold back room
posts.
The idea that everyone in the example I gave in "Losing
Business at Entry," is Black never occurred to African
Americans.
It is this inability to recognize that in other parts of the
world Black skinned people hold power, are millionaires, (not
by sports or music, but by business acumen) and that one
might rarely encounter a person of another race, becomes
science fiction to those who have fully inculcated the
American "Dream'.?
