If you don't believe that racism is at the root of it all, perhaps using "discrimination" instead of racism will make things clearer. You see, discrimination (

If you don't believe that racism is at the root of it all, perhaps using "discrimination" instead of racism will make things clearer. You see, discrimination (or favoritism) is what humans do. It's innate and it takes a higher state of consciousness to not be influenced by it. Even that is no guarantee. Racism is discrimination at the level of racial groups. When it takes place within a racial group, it's plain old discrimination or nepotism. Before Northern Europeans came to these lands, discrimination was not a foreign concept. Neither was it where those Northern Europeans came from. After all, that was what caused most of them to leave in the first place. So when one race (native Americans) met another racial group (whites), discrimination became racism. It's what humans do. Animals, too, and just as violently. When black Africans were brought here, it's only natural that they were discriminated against. It's what humans do. We'll always find one reason or the other to discriminate. Be it skin color or religion. We can't help ourselves. What the Nazi's did in Germany, and what happened here (extermination of Indian tribes, slavery and Jim Crow), is when discrimination became state sponsored (it is now the law of the land). And society only gets to that point when the majority allows a small band of ignorant bums to impose their twisted ideas on everybody. This can lead to a very lengthy discussion, but it's enough at this point to state that yes, humans are born with this ability to discriminate. Racism is when it takes place between members of different racial groups.