And we can change it.
Alexandre Porto
3 min read
Some Say that human history started in the late 16th century when humanity first stepped foot on a new world and began to spread across the globe.
This period of human history is known as colonialism, but it was also accompanied by another concept that has been an integral part of human society since its inception: racism.
What is Racism?
Racism refers to a concept where a person defines another group of people as inferior to themselves based on their race, ethnicity, or other physical characteristics.
It is very clear that white Europeans have historically defined non-white people as lesser than them. This has been the case since human history began.
The divide between people of different races has been used to justify slavery, oppression, execution, and genocide since the dawn of human civilization.
The many instances of racism in human history are too numerous to list here but they include:
The African slave trade by Europeans from 1400–1900 AD which killed over 12 million Africans;
European colonization of South America where around 113 million indigenous people died due to exploitation or disease;
Japanese internment camps during World War II where 120 thousand Japanese Americans were imprisoned without just cause according to a legal ruling 25 years later.
These are just three examples of the countless instances where racism has caused devastation to human civilization.
The roots of racism can be traced back to the age-old belief that people who look different from you deserve less than you and should be forced into servitude or even death because they are not ‘human’.
This is an awful concept, full of hate, which was used by Europeans to justify their actions against other groups and led ultimately to a world war.
Main Moving Force
It is clear that racism has been the main force behind the human history, and as long as it exists there will be more instances of slavery, oppression, death, hatred, and genocide.
Racism is not just a problem in today’s world; it has existed for thousands of years and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
As many argue, racism can be traced as far back in human history as the main force pushing the ink in history books.
Our job as a whole is to change the way that we navigate through our decisions as a society.
We can not allow the history of our times to tell stories about how a fault of how people perceive others changed the course of our species.
We must find a new moving power to civilization.
Love
Hate, repulsion, anger are all strong forces that possess the human spirit from time to time.
But I argue that there is another force that is much more abundant and potent, the force of Love.
Love is a force of nature that can not be explained logically, but it can be felt deep in the structure of every living being in the universe.
We must find this force within us and learn how to use it to move our civilization and them, our history books will paint our generations and many others to come with a more colorful picture.