Where Does Racism Towards Blacks Come From?

Question

When the white men bought Africans to America, what was their reasons for hating blacks? They had never seen blacks before so how can you hate something you have never seen?. So can it be safely assumed that racism towards blacks actually has no root? Is it generated and grown from personal distaste such as typical racists today will use the usual "black gangsters/welfare/ghetto" stereotype for their reasons. *gagging* If there were no black slaves, would racism for blacks exist? i.e. jim crow, civil rights movements, etc

ok let me rephrase,,,,, where does racism come from period!!! not just blacks. against all people.

Answer 1

All racism comes from the devil in his attempts to preach hate and not love. Anyone seen as different is auotmatically rated less than, be it different color, different religion, being too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat, tooo whatever. just different from an average so called NORM. Yes racism has a root. Its from the devil and not of God. The devil will do anything to cause hatred and division and chaos. The purpose is to keep us from God and Heaven. But, its our choice who we listen to. Indians are hated frequently by whites, spanish ppl... list is endless. but, do look, racism goes both ways. I have met many that hate all white ppl. Its a two edged fence. Not everyone has it, but everyone that does got it from listening to the devil, whether they knew it or not. you asked if there were no black slaves, would there be racism. Yes, hatred of blacks is the reason they took them for slaves. if they had not hated them, they would not take them as their slave. You are correct racism comes from personal distaste, but where does it come from?? the devil himself, who hates love and unity, and wants to ruin us all. The civil rights movement has done a lot to help, but true racists battle that and hate that too, and wont hear any of it. It only makes sense to those of us not racists. and no I am not black. I am white. God says He created us all equal, so any person that is racism, is not hearing from God. Period. so many wear the Christian label,but dont follow God at all. just assuming grace covers everything. No, grace dosnt cover deliberate sin, and grace wont cover racisim and hate. I am passionate on anything that is not of God. God says by their fruits (actions) we will know them. Just look and we will see. Racism is of the devil, never of God. so is all prejudice. PPl that hate fat ppl or think pppl or ppl of other countries and religions, ppl that hate are not of God. We even love our enemies, but we hate their sin That is not me, that is God. Love questions that make us think, and this is good??????Wonder how many have ever even given this a thought???? Ask on.

Answer 2

Basically racism in general comes from men’s stupid arrogance that makes him/her believe that he/she is superior to the rest.
When it comes to white people, this feeling gets much worse (b.t.w. I’m white). When black slavery was introduced in America, back in the 18th century, white Americans practically all from British and French origine, considered the blacks only a little bit better than animals, and in most cases people who claim to be Christians considered their slaves as people with no soul. They could beat, torture or even kill them, as they pleased and they did not think they were doing anything wrong. As you probably have heard, Mr. Blair, U.K. Prime Minister, only last week made a public declaration apologizing for the way slaves had been treated by the British. And Americans were no better, believe me.
So some white people transmitted so well those superiority feelings to the new generations, that even now, the feeling persists amongst a lot of people.
But, as I said, we white people, tend to consider ourselves better (actually, the best) than the rest of Mankind, which does not tell highly on us. In fact, it means that we are probably the worst ones.
Curious98

Answer 3

Racism exists all over the world and the white / black antagonism is far worse in South Africa than in America. Slavery isn't necessarily a factor. It think the root of it is cultural differences, fear, and ignorance. It could also be noted that there is black racism agains Koreans in "the ghetto" because they have made economic inroads in those areas and run many of the stores that were once black owned.

Answer 4

What a great question adding it to my watch list.
I have no idea where it came from but I'm very interesting esp since both my parents were born in 1936 and had to deal with the prejudice of not being equal not being able to vote not being able to sit on the same side in a restaurant, not being able to sit in the front of the bus, etc Where did it come from and how did so many people follow such a ignorant idea that blacks aren't equal to other nationalities and cultures.

Answer 5

I think racism against blacks stems from the time that they were considered property. Many people were against blacks being treated as humans instead of animals, and resented the fact that they had to. The rest is what I call learned behavior..."My grandaddy hated them, so my daddy hated them, so I guess I should too..." Stereotyping is as wrong as racial profiling as far as I'm concerned; I have a multitude of friends from all over the world, and of every color. I wish we could all just get along!!! Wouldn't life then be truly sweet?

Answer 6

Yes racism will still exist. People fear what they don't know. It's simple ignorance. What most don't stop to realize is that they don't hate anyone in general it's just one bad experience causes them to make generalizations about them all. It's the same thing with religions and other races and cultures. All are inherently good it's just a few jerks that ruin it for the rest.

Answer 7

This is not a qestion that can be addressed quickly. Primates tend to be a social animal, which includes humans. In any such species there is a tendency to exclude the unusual or different, like an albino crow not being permitted within a murder. This leads to an "us" vs "them" kind of thinking, which has existed cross culturally throughout human history. It used be based on culture or place of origin, a Frenchman in Germany or Italy was automatically treated differently from the native citizens. The concept of slavery is very old, and was not originally based on inherent nature like race but by national conquest as the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrew. In such societies the decendents of slaves could in time be assimilated and become free citizens, if you were born in Greece, grew up in Greece, Greek was your native language, etc. you were a Greek. There is an equal need in people to feel good about themselves, the best of people work to excell, others try and tear others down. It is easy to point to a foreigner as someone inferior, since they aren't familiar with the customs. That let's you be superior without any effort on your part. Racial discrimination evolved from that with European colonialism, skin color being the easiest way to tell who was European and who wasn't, and since the Europeans had the guns, they got decide which race was on top. This led to a lighter is better attitude, with the fairer skinned westerners looking down their duskier neighbors from the med. You will note that none of this was the result of slavery, the conquest and enslavement of people living in Africa included Arab and European peoples as well, The Romanos Pontifex, a Papal Bull promulgated in 1455 by Pope Nicholas V, authorized the "Conquest and enslavement of all peoples south of Cape Bojador." No mention was made or understood to exclude white people. The Muslims restricted slavery by religion not race, they were not allowed to enslave other Muslims, if you converted they had to free you. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, spent a number of years as slave in Africa. By the time of the invasion of Americas judging people by skin color had become common because, as before, it was the easiest way to tell the invaders from the Natives. When they began the slave trade they also used it to identify which were slaves and which were masters. It was then that the question of whether slaves were people or not came up, the first anti-slavery organization in the New World was founded by Ben Franklin. The south, being slave labor dependent began systematically sub-humanizing their slaves so that by the 1850s the concept of being something by blood had taken hold. One drop of "black blood" was ehough to get you tossed into a slave pen, rather like one Jewish grandparent could get you tossed into Buchenwald. It also made it possible to have white slaves by claiming they were 1/32 black, or some such. After the Civil War a whole generation of southerners were faced with the unthinkable, their property were now their fellow citizens. The rest is well known.

Answer 8

Correction, when the black chiefs sold tribesmen to the Europeans... and hate had little to do with the slave trade. During that era Africans were considered as subhumans just as Islamo Fascists consider all non-Muslims as infidels, and facts from the civil war era expose southern bigots/democrats as the first actual racists, thus the KKK was founded...

Answer 9

Racism was invented and fostered to help keep the black man down. It is not a natural phenomenon, it is a learned behavior White slaves were generally indentured servants and still had rights and opportunities that weren't given to black slaves.

Read the Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Answer 10

Slavery certainly played a role. It dehumanized blacks in the eyes of many, I think. Rather than view blacks as human beings, many saw them as simply tools; cheap, expendable means of producing consumer goods. Ignorance and simple animalistic behavior certainly didn't help (that's on the part of the enslavers, mind you). Of course, it seems humans love to hate. Irish, Italians, Mexicans, Blacks, Asians, Christians, Muslims. . . you would be hard pressed to think of a group that wasn't hated by at least one other group.