Often in the past three months watching the dog at our country place react to sounds and passing people/vehicles I am reminded how humans are basically the same from a tribe/pack perspective. We are programmed to differentiate between us and them. Being civilised is really about pushing instinct aside and encompassing a larger group and it is not easy to do for many.
The dog (Theo) is eight, spent his first couple of years as a street dog, then was adopted as a finca (country cottage) dog as he had a good bark but was friendly by a man who trained him to stay quiet when the outside lights were on etc. When that man left the area my father-in-law took him in.
He absolutely hates two stroke engines and men who look poor passing by but is OK with kids, women and some men. He barks at everything outside the hedge/fence (you can't see) but he only snarls at a few. He is a great dog for security.
In Theo's mind is a very clear memory of these kinds of people have hurt him and others have fed him when he was a street puppy. Raise your arm to stretch too fast and he flattens to the ground with a don't hurt Theo please look. His bark is loud, his bite barely there.
I think Trumpers are largely the same. Few to none of them had good parents who kept them entirely safe from the big bad world and they just run on early years programming their whole lives.
People are tribal by nature. We form communities for self preservation. It’s deep in our DNA.
However, historically humans are not racist. If you’ve ever read the Bible, you’ll notice the absence of skin color as people were identified by their nation of origin. Ethiopians were never “black” they were just Ethiopian. Nubians were Nubians. Hittites weren’t Brown they were just Hittites.
You’ll even notice this if you’ve ever read Shakespeare. Othello wasn’t black or brown, he was just a Moore.
Africans have been in Europe for over a thousand years and Europeans in Africa for the same amount of time.
When Mansa Musa made the haj he became famous throughout Europe for his wealth. Not described as “black” but as West African from Mali.
It was when slavery became concentrated from Africa for labor in the Americas that skin color became the prevailing descriptive characteristic over nation of origin. To understand why you have to understand the economics of the new world circa 1545 AD was to extract as much wealth as possible and deliver it back to wealthy investors in Europe.
(((Asa side note, Christopher Columbus didn’t discover the Americas. How do you discover a place where millions of people already live?)))
So not only did slavery meet the needs of the economic system, so did paying white workers poor wages. From this a social structure was created where poor whites would accept their low station because they were better off than the enslaved blacks.
Today this social structure still persists in America. Prisons are privately owned and they receive a payment for every prisoner. The justice system disproportionately provides them black prisoners for poverty crimes. Many black Americans are still being bought and sold in a way.
Many poorwhites will still accept low wages because the social structure keeps them in a hierarchy above blacks. Again look at the disproportionate incarceration rates, education rates, even interest rates on loans and prices paid for things like cars when controlling factors are similar.
Don’t believe me? If you’re white, simply ask yourself would you want to be black in America? Now be honest with yourself.
Why do we still have this? Because of profit of course. As long as prisons and healthcare systems and banks are good then why in the world would the politicians want to change anything against their donors will.
