I find it hard to believe Europeans somehow 'invented' racism. They may have codified it and hierarchized it, but 'racism', i.e., tribalism, has been with us since the beginning of mankind. Being suspicious of Others was an evolutionary necessity for staying safe when you didn't know what others were like. If you didn't have much opportunity to interact with them - or you had and it hadn't gone well - you'd develop an understandable dislike of them.
Regarding others as one's 'inferiors' is unfortunately quite human, and may have *begun* with the degradation of women as equals.
I find it hard to believe Europeans somehow 'invented' racism. They may have codified it and hierarchized it, but 'racism', i.e., tribalism, has been with us since the beginning of mankind. Being suspicious of Others was an evolutionary necessity for staying safe when you didn't know what others were like. If you didn't have much opportunity to interact with them - or you had and it hadn't gone well - you'd develop an understandable dislike of them.
Regarding others as one's 'inferiors' is unfortunately quite human, and may have *begun* with the degradation of women as equals.