Inventing Racism

RACISM WAS INVENTED BY CHRISTIANS, in particular, white Christians. This cannot be denied, no matter how hard our contemporary Christian votaries might wish to deny it. Racism and religious bigotry are the twin pillars of modern hatred. And today, it is perpetuated largely by Christians. I have never met a non christian who is a racist. Racism is a rather modern invention, a fact which probably surprises amateur historians, the sort who, without ever having studied history, suddenly become quite knowledgeable when a discussion about some current issue turns argumentative. The sort who are likely to assume that racism is as old as the human species, an inherent if unfortunate human proclivity. Racism is an invention of the seventeenth century. Soon after Martin Luther started the protestant reformation in 1517, the revolt spread rapidly throughout northern Europe, and the Catholic church responded to the immolation of the Roman church by launching the Catholic counter reformation, intended to fight the protestant exodus. The fight was on. The seventeenth century was a protracted religious war which raged all across Europe, and religion and national cultural differences were the source of European fighting, not skin color. A war ravaged Europe turned outward, towards other continents, in pursuit of wealth and empire. Columbus and the earliest conquerors enjoyed sufficient success depriving natives of the western hemisphere of their gold and silver, and enslaving them, to inspire gold, silver, and slave seeking excursions all over the world. The settlement at Jamestown was a purely commercial venture, intended to similarly separate the natives from their wealth, and to turn them into slaves. The northern natives were not easily subdued. Unlike the more passive natives of the south, North Americans were impossible to turn into slaves, so, the Europeans turned to Africa for slave capture. The Jamestown pioneers were starving, because they were more interested in digging for gold than farming and fishing, and in 1619 they purchased the first slaves, and a long tradition in American history was born. Racism was nothing other than a justification for treating people like cattle; not only were the primitive natives not Christian, but their skin color was so glaringly different from Europeans that racism, like religion, became a convenient justification for enslaving them. White supremacist organizations like the KKK are but a continuation of a long tradition among white Christians.