Now I am sure after reading the title/subtitle you’re probably thinking:

“Wow, this guy really has no credibility”

I don’t blame you if that was your first thought, however, I encourage you to keep reading before you assume I am a race war advocate, Kanye West, or someone who is trying to be funny by being controversial. Many people (if people are even reading this) will probably disagree with my view on this topic, but please let me elaborate. When we ask “Why is there racism”, today a common answer would be: Society glorifies it, people were brought up this way, feelings of power over someone, etc.

Throughout history racism has existed, even the most influential, intelligent, and heroic have had some racial tendencies or somewhat racist ideology. Aristotle “the father of Western philosophy” is one of the most important people in history, his contributions created metaphysics, natural science, logic, zoology, and the scientific method, however, he stated that when discussing slavery that Non-greeks are free by nature but Barbarians (non-greeks) are slaves by nature and that they biologically programmed to be slaves of Greek rule. Aristotle had a belief that those who are strong are stupid and therefore are only fit to be slaves for the ones who are.

Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer who decided to quit the profession and become an activist, he led the “Salt March” and “Quit India Movements” which led India to become a nation that was independent of British rule and influenced the civil rights movement under the United States, so much so, that Martin Luther King credited Gandhi as an influence for his non-violent activism. However, even someone who helped unite the world with different races, cultures, and religions and constantly preached the evils of being prejudiced, had some incidences of being discriminatory. Ghandi suggested that the Jewish people should accept their deaths in the holocaust, he even considered Hitler to be a friend. He also gave his two cents in regard to what the Jewish people should do in the fight against the Arabs. “Offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them.” Ghandi has displayed prejudice against Africans stating “A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are a little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.” (Kaffir is a derogatory term for Africans)

If I had to go through every influential person in history who had incidents of being a racist, well then this post will never end. I want to make myself clear that I don’t despise Ghandi or Aristotle or most of the historical figures that have been guilty of this trait, when measuring if someone is a “bad” person or not, I always try to look at whether they have done more bad than good. For example: If a scientist did testing that killed 100 people, but the results of this testing saved 101 people then I would consider that a success. The accomplishments of Gandhi and Aristotle are so much greater and more important than what they supposedly had said or what they believed in at the time.

So all in all, why does racism exist?

Well in my non-credible opinion, I believe it is one’s brain trying to protect itself. Most (if not every) humans have an innate fear of snakes, spiders, heights, and the dark. When we encounter these things we may scream, attack, flee, or just try our best to avoid them. I think we can all agree that we don’t avoid cliffs because we are racist towards them. The reason why we are afraid of the things listed above is that for 99.6% of human life, we were hunters and gatherers, so think about the number of times in a span of a million years that a human/bonobo fell off a cliff chasing or fleeing something, or the number of times we were bitten by a poisonous snake or got killed during the night, probably quite a few. Why do you think people are more afraid of sharks than they are of dogs despite the fact that dogs kill 30,000 people a year while sharks only kill 10? That means you are 3,000 times more likely to get killed by a dog than a shark (I’m actually terrible at math, so there is a possibility that might be wrong) yet we keep dogs as pets and call them our friends. Our brains are programmed to survive and it does this by collecting data and processing the information so one can survive in the world. Let’s say there is a world where there were only a couple of bears and people didn’t know they existed, so one day you and a friend go for a hike and you see an innocent and friendly-looking bear, your friend goes to pet it and then suddenly your buddy is getting mauled to death. Well, the next time you see a bear, I’m sure not only you won’t pet it, you’ll probably attack it or run away from it, because your brain is telling you “Hey remember what that thing did to Mike?”. So If I read that most crimes are committed by people of the black community, my brain processes that information and creates an alarm system for when I encounter a group of African-Americans on the street, the same way a black person may look through the history of oppression that their people have suffered from the white community and subconsciously think that they should stay away from those people. Our brain tries to protect ourselves and sometimes it may do this by being…well…..racist.

Now one might read what I typed and think “Fear is a symptom of racism” or perhaps “Fear is a type of racism, but doesn’t cover all types of racism.” These statements may be true, however, let’s say that the highest form of racism is pure hatred, not fear. Well, historically the people in history that displayed or expressed their hatred for a group of people, their ideology for the most part was rooted in fear. When we think of the most racist person in history the first thing in everyone’s mind is Adolf Hitler. He is the first-ballot Hall of Famer racist, the Michael Jordan of hating people, if being racist was a national sport he would get the “League’s leading scorer” award. Hitler’s feelings towards the Jews, slavs, and gypsies weren’t for no reason, hate is a powerful tool but exterminating 6 million Jews, 27 million Slavs, and 500,000 Romanis because you just simply don’t like them doesn’t quite make sense. To do something of that great extent has to not be because of hate but because of great fear for the world. Hitler’s ideology was that the Aryan race was the most superior and that it must be protected at all cost, his ranking of racial hierarchy ranked from:

• Nordic and Germanic (Aryan)

• Asian (“Aryans of the East”/ “Honorary Aryans”)

• Non-Jewish Europeans

• Non-Europeans

• Slavic

• Romani

• Jewish

Hitler was influenced by German Philosopher Frederich Nietzsche who who wrote three times in his first book Gay Science “God is Dead”. This phrase has several meanings to it, although an Athiest, Nietzsche’s quote wasn’t as black and white as how most people see it. The phrase “God is dead” meant that god once existed in Europe and was the foundation of every life, idea, and decision of the European people. However, Nietzsche proclaimed that those days were over, not because God didn’t exist, but because the idea of God wasn’t as prevalent in people’s lives. Why? Nietzsche was under the impression that humans have become gods or have the potential to be a god (ubermensch -superhuman). Hitler took this idea and concluded that the “ubermensh” were the Aryans (“The Aryan stands firm, one with God in his attitude to the world and its people.” – Adolf Hitler) If these Aryans were one with God, then these Aryans should rule and be protected and not because of the concern that the “Untermensch” will physically attack them, but because the untermensch will breed with them (“All who are not of a good race are chaff,” wrote Hitler. It was necessary for Germans to “occupy themselves not merely with the breeding of dogs, horses, and cats but also with care for the purity of their own blood.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kamf, 1925). In fear that Jews would destroy the world, Hitler thought it was the most necessary to destroy the Jews.

If a scientist did testing that killed 100 people, but the results of this testing saved 101 people than I would consider that a success.

I believe this phrase above (that I previously stated) is a good indicator of Hitler’s mindset.

Now this post is about pondering the idea of whether racism is a trait that we are biologically programmed to have and concluded that perhaps our brains use racism and create stereotypes to protect ourselves. This idea may make it seem that fear is the above-all reason behind racism, but perhaps there is more. A few paragraphs ago I stated that a lot of hate is rooted in fear, but maybe sometimes it’s because they simply don’t like certain people. Propaganda has been a huge factor in continuing or creating a racist environment where there wasn’t one in the first place.“Racism is not dead, but it is on life support—kept alive by politicians, race hustlers, and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists.'” – Thomas Sowell

Propaganda used against a certain group, person or idea is pretty much just defamation, so in what area is defamation the most useful? War. War is the only time in which murder (The crime with the highest level of punishment) is not only legal but encouraged. In 2023 we are currently witnessing a major war between Ukraine and Russia, which began when Russia invaded their neighbor on Februrary 2022. Since the war began we have witnessed the celebration of dead Russian soldiers and condemnation of anyone who opposes continuing or escalating the war (Elon Musk was criticized for not giving access to his Starlink company to kill thousands of Russian soldiers). Now, I do not like getting political and I’ll try my best to avoid falling down that rabbit hole, however, I find it really strange that if I murdered someone I’ll receive a sentencing of 15-25 years in prison (in most countries) yet if I murdered a particular person, in a particular area, at a particular time, I am a hero. The same countries that have laws that punish those who kill, criticize the ones who don’t support a mass killing of people in other countries. So why do people hate Russians? Well, it is the same reason why people hated Germans, the Japanese, Muslims, and South Americans. War is a business and it is expensive, as of September 9th 2023 over $6 billion USD has been sent to Ukraine, the Iraq war cost over $1.9 trillion USD and the war in Afghanistan cost over $300 million a day (If you would like to know more about this side of war please look up “Military Industrial Complex”), If you are spending $300 million USD a day, you need the support of your citizens and most importantly you need soldiers. The U.S. was aware of this in WW1 when they hired women to give feathers to every man they saw on the street to remind them that they were a coward for not being in the trenches of France. In that very same war, the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, allowed for the prosecution and imprisonment of individuals who expressed anti-war sentiments or opposed the draft. Questioning one’s manhood and implementing laws is an effective way to gain support for a way, but it goes like the old saying “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink.” So how do you make them drink? You make racism legal.

“Propaganda could be used to arouse hatred of the foe, warn of the consequences of defeat, and idealize one’s own war aims in order to mobilize a nation, maintain its morale, and make it fight to the end. It could explain setbacks by blaming scapegoats such as war profiteers, hoarders, defeatists, dissenters, pacifists, left-wing socialists, spies, shirkers, strikers, and sometimes enemy aliens so that the public would not question the war itself or the existing social and political system.” -Eberhard Demm and Christopher H. Sterling.

It is a pretty big favor to ask someone to kill a man, let alone travel to a war zone and risk getting killed, the guilt of killing has been described by many veterans as torturous, especially if they are just a regular man no different than you and I. The most effective way to convince someone to take another life is to make them want to, whether it is for your country, for freedom, or because you simply hate the opponent. Pretty soon in WW1, it wasn’t uncommon to hear stories of Germans raping and mutilating innocent civilians, crucifying Canadians on barn doors and trees, and seeing posters of a German ape carrying a beautiful woman away