Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people are superior to, and should have authority over, all others.[1] The presumed superior group can be defined byage,gender,race,ethnicity,religion,sexual orientation,language,social class,ideology,nationality,culture,generation, or any other human characteristic.
InAsia, Indians inAncient India considered all foreignersbarbarians. TheMuslim scholarAl-Biruni wrote that the Indians called foreigners impure.[2] A few centuries later, Dubois observes that "Hindus look upon Europeans as barbarians totally ignorant of all principles of honour and good breeding... In the eyes of a Hindu, a Pariah (outcaste) and a European are on the same level."[2] The Chinese also considered the Europeans repulsive, ghost-like creatures, and they even considered them devils. Chinese writers also referred to foreigners as barbarians.[3]
Centuries ofEuropean colonialism in the Americas,Asia,Africa andOceania were justified byEurocentric attitudes as well as sometimes bywhite supremacist attitudes.[6]
During the 19th century, "The White Man's Burden", the phrase which refers to the thought that whites have the obligation to make the societies of the other peoples more 'civilized', was widely used to justify colonial policies as a noble enterprise.[7][8] HistorianThomas Carlyle, best known for his historical account of theFrench Revolution,The French Revolution: A History, argued that western policies were justified on the grounds that they provided the greatest benefit to "inferior" native peoples.[9] However, even at the time of its publication in 1849, Carlyle's main work on the subject, theOccasional Discourse on the Negro Question, was poorly received by his contemporaries.[10]
According to William Nicholls,religious antisemitism can be distinguished fromracial antisemitism which is based onracial orethnic grounds. "The dividing line was the possibility of effective conversion ... a Jew ceased to be a Jew uponbaptism." However, with racial antisemitism, "Now the assimilated Jew was still a Jew, even after baptism ... . From theEnlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews... Once Jews have been emancipated and secular thinking makes its appearance, without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear."[11]
One of the firsttypologies which was used to classify various human races was invented byGeorges Vacher de Lapouge (1854–1936), a theoretician ofeugenics, who publishedL'Aryen et son rôle social (1899 – "TheAryan and his social role") in 1899. In his book, he divides humanity into various,hierarchical races, starting with the highest race which is the "Aryan white race, dolichocephalic", and ending with the lowest race which is the "brachycephalic", "mediocre and inert" race, that race is best represented bySouthern European,Catholic peasants".[12] Between these, Vacher de Lapouge identified the "Homo europaeus" (Teutonic,Protestant, etc.), the "Homo alpinus" (Auvergnat,Turkish, etc.), and finally the "Homo mediterraneus" (Neapolitan,Andalus, etc.) Jews were brachycephalic just like the Aryans were, according to Lapouge; but he considered them dangerous for this exact reason; they were the only group, he thought, which was threatening to displace the Aryan aristocracy.[13] Georges Vacher de Lapouge became one of the leading inspirations ofNazi antisemitism andNazi racist ideology.[14]
White Americans who participated in theAtlantic slave trade believed and Justified their economic exploitation of African Americans by creating ascientific theory of white superiority and black inferiority.[15]Thomas Jefferson, who was a believer of scientific racism and enslaver of over 600 African Americans (regarded as property under theArticles of Confederation),[16] wrote that blacks were "inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind."[17]
A justification for theconquest ofAmerican Indian tribes emanated from theirdehumanized perception as the "merciless Indian savages", as described in theUnited States Declaration of Independence.[18][19]
Before the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War, theConfederate States of America was founded with aconstitution that contained clauses which restricted the government's ability to limit or interfere with the institution of "negro" slavery.[20] In the 1861Cornerstone Speech, Confederate vice president,Alexander Stephens declared that one of the Confederacy's foundational tenets was White Supremacy over African American slaves.[21] Following the war, a hate group, known as theKu Klux Klan, was founded in theAmerican South, after the end of theAmerican Civil War. Its purpose has been to maintain White, Protestant supremacy in the US after theReconstruction period, which it did so through violence and intimidation.[22]
TheAnti-Defamation League[23] (ADL) andSouthern Poverty Law Center[24] condemn writings about "Jewish Supremacism" byHolocaust-denier, formerGrand Wizard of the KKK, andconspiracy theoristDavid Duke asantisemitic – in particular, his bookJewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question.[25]Kevin B. MacDonald, known for histheory of Judaism as a "group evolutionary strategy", has also been accused of being "antisemitic" and a "white supremacist" in his writings on the subject by the ADL[26] and his own university psychology department.[27]
From 1933 to 1945,Nazi Germany, under the rule ofAdolf Hitler, promoted the belief in the existence of a superior,AryanHerrenvolk, ormaster race. Thestate's propaganda advocated the belief thatGermanic peoples, whom they called "Aryans", were a master race or aHerrenvolk whose members were superior to theJews,Slavs, andRomani people, so-called "gypsies".Arthur de Gobineau, a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of theancien régime in France onracial intermixing, which he believed had destroyed the purity of theNordic race. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a large and strong following in Germany, emphasized the belief in the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan andJewish cultures.[28]
Cornel West, an African-American philosopher, writes thatblack supremacist religious views arose in America as a part ofblack Muslim theology in response to white supremacy.[29]
InAfrica, black SouthernSudanese allege that they are being subjected to a racist form ofArab supremacy, which they equate with the historic white supremacism ofSouth Africa'sapartheid.[31] The allegedgenocide andethnic cleansing in the ongoingWar in Darfur has been described as an example ofArabracism.[32]For example, in their analysis of the sources of the conflict, Julie Flint andAlex de Waal say thatColonel Gaddafi, the leader ofLibya, sponsored "Arab supremacism" across theSahara during the 1970s. Gaddafi supported the "Islamic Legion" and the Sudanese opposition "National Front, including theMuslim Brothers and the Ansar, theUmma Party's military wing." Gaddafi tried to use such forces to annexChad from 1979 to 1981. Gaddafi supported the Sudanese government'swar in the South during the early 1980s, and in return, he was allowed to use the Darfur region as a "back door to Chad". As a result, the first signs of an "Arab racist political platform" appeared in Darfur in the early 1980s.[33]
Academics Carol Lansing and Edward D. English argue thatChristian supremacism was a motivation for theCrusades in theHoly Land, as well as a motivation for crusades against Muslims and pagans throughout Europe.[34] Theblood libel is a widespread Europeanconspiracy theory which led to centuries ofpogroms and massacres of European Jewish minorities because it alleged that Jews required the pure blood of a Christian child in order to makematzah forPassover.Thomas of Cantimpré writes of theblood curse which the Jews put upon themselves and all of their generations at the court ofPontius Pilate where Jesus was sentenced to death: "A very learned Jew, who in our day has been converted to the (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoying the reputation of a prophet among them, toward the close of his life, made the following prediction: 'Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to which you are exposed, can only be obtained through Christian blood ("solo sanguine Christiano")."[35] TheAtlantic slave trade has also been partially attributed to Christian supremacism.[36] TheKu Klux Klan has been described as awhite supremacist Christian organization, as are many other white supremacist groups, such as thePosse Comitatus and theChristian Identity andPositive Christianity movements.[37][38]
AcademicsKhaled Abou El Fadl, Ian Lague, and Joshua Cone note that, while theQuran and otherIslamic scriptures express tolerant beliefs, such asAl-Baqara 256 "there is no compulsion in religion",[39] there have also been numerous instances of Muslim or Islamic supremacism.[40] Examples of how supremacists have interpreted Islam include thehistory of slavery in the Muslim world,Caliphate,[41]Ottoman Empire, the early-20th-centurypan-Islamism promoted byAbdul Hamid II,[42] thejizya and supremacy ofSharia law, such as rules of marriage in Muslim countries being imposed on non-Muslims.[43]
While non-violentproselytism of Islam (Dawah) is not Islamic supremacism,forced conversion to Islam is Islamic supremacism.[44][45] Death penalty forapostasy in Islam is a sign of Islamic supremacism.[46]
Numerous massacres andethnic cleansing of Jews, Christians and non-Muslims[47] occurred in some Muslim-majority countries including in Morocco, Libya, and Algeria, where eventually Jews were forced to live inghettos.[48] Decrees ordering the destruction ofsynagogues were enacted during theMiddle Ages in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.[49] At certain times in Yemen, Morocco, andBaghdad, Jews wereforced to convert to Islam or face theIslamic death penalty.[50] While there were antisemitic incidents before the 20th century, antisemitism increased after theArab–Israeli conflict. Following the1948 Arab–Israeli War, thePalestinian exodus, thecreation of the State of Israel and Israeli victories during the wars of1956 and1967 were a severe humiliation to Israel's opponents – primarily Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.[51] However, by the mid-1970s the vast majority of Jewshad left Muslim-majority countries, moving primarily to Israel, France, and the United States.[52] The reasons for the Jewish exodus are varied and disputed.[52]
Ilan Pappé, anexpatriate Israeli historian, writes that theFirst Aliyah to Israel "established a society based on Jewish supremacy" within "settlement-cooperatives" that were Jewish owned and operated.[53]Joseph Massad, a professor ofArab studies, holds that "Jewish supremacism" has always been a "dominating principle" inreligious and secularZionism.[54][55]
Feminist scholars[56] argue that inpatriarchy, male supremacism is upheld through a variety of cultural, political, religious, sexual, and interpersonal systems and relations.[56][57] Since the 19th century there have been a number of feminist movements opposed to male supremacism, usually aimed at achieving equal legal rights and protections for women in all cultural, political and interpersonal relations.[58][59][60]
...imperialist editors came out in favor of retaining the entire archipelago (using) higher-sounding justifications related to the "white man's burden.
{{cite book}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)Whereas the First Aliya established a society based on Jewish supremacy, the Second Aliya's method of colonization was separation from Palestinians.
Patriarchal beliefs assert superiority of men with a right to leadership in family and public life.
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