We often frame racism the wrong way. Racism isn\u2019t really about the colour of our skin. It\u2019s about power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Racism is when people in power decide groups of other people, for whatever reason, are different, that they\u2019re inferior in some way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it doesn\u2019t always have to be white people in power framing people of colour as inferior. That certainly qualifies as racism, but it ignores other racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, 100 years ago, Anglo-Saxon North Americans saw Irish people as inferior. They saw Italian people as inferior. They saw Slavic people and other Eastern Europeans as inferior. But put any of these people against Anglo-Saxon people and you\u2019d barely be able to see the difference between their skin colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet despite both groups being \u201cwhite\u201d, one group was racist toward the other. That was possible because the ethnic group in power decided that other ethnic groups were inferior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or take the S\u00e1mi people of northern Scandinavia. They were forced to learn the languages of the imperial states who claimed ownership of S\u00e1mi ancestral lands. There was also pressure on the S\u00e1mi to become Christian. The S\u00e1mi were subjected to forced sterilization. The S\u00e1mi were displaced to make way for settlers from the south and for economic development of the region. All this despite looking superficially like the southern people who oppressed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s not just \u201cwhite\u201d people either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, when the Japanese occupied the Korean peninsula, they outlawed education beyond just primary school, which, of course, limited social mobility for Koreans. The Japanese owned about 94% of the capital produced by Korean factories. They severely limited the freedom of the Korean press. By WWII, the Korean language was no longer taught in school. The Japanese stole tens of thousands of Korean cultural artifacts. They saw Korea as backwards and in need of modernization, yet that modernization benefited Japan, extracting and exporting natural resources for Japan\u2019s use. Koreans were forced to take Japanese names. Finally, they forced Shintoism onto the Korean people, displacing other religions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Korea wasn\u2019t the only area occupied by Imperial Japan. Okinawa, Taiwan, Micronesia, parts of eastern Russia, parts of China, also fell victim to their colonial efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see this same sort of racial hierarchy throughout the world. The Rwandan genocide, the Guatemala civil war, the \u00dcr\u00fcmqi riots in China, and others all have race at their core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Racism isn\u2019t about the colour of skin. It\u2019s about power. And those who have the power get to decide who belongs to the empowered race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n