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Was there any racism during the ancient and middle ages? I know that Ancient Greeks for instance considered any non-Greek a barbarian but what I'm asking about is racism based on the skin color.

Also, was modern racism solely a product of colonialism or were there any other major reasons behind it?

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One might say that racism was one of the causes of colonialism. See the white man's burden. Though this was in 1899. – apoorv020 Jan 15 '12 at 0:40
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@apoorv020 - More like one of the excuses. If you recall, American colonists were of quite the same race as the British, and the indigenous population actually supported the British in large part, because to them, British were the less expansionist of the 2 sides. – DVK Jan 15 '12 at 14:12
The Jews were slaves in Egypt thousands of years before colonialism. – iterationx Jan 17 '12 at 19:29

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

In the middle ages the Christians in Europe played nicely with the local Jewish population, the Spanish especially would often call round to inquire how they are.

Occasionally large groups of knights visited their Muslim neightbours for ecumenical discussions and to swap recipes.

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+1 Did you read Sarcasm for Really Smart People?... ^_~ – Sardathrion Jan 17 '12 at 8:42
Everyone expects the Spanish friends! – Lohoris Jan 17 '12 at 11:16
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How's that "racism"? They weren't targeted for their race, but for their religion (or geopolitical reasons) – DVK Jan 17 '12 at 16:20
@DVK so how are you defining race? – mgb Jan 17 '12 at 16:33
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@mgb - the way people who usually talk about "racism" do. Dark skinned people of African descent, Asians, Amerinds, Hispanics (basically South American tribe descendents) and related tribes, and Caucasians for everything not fitting into the above. Basically, the contents of "race" dropdown choice in the forms used in American official places, e.g. college admissions/government. Not a very good definition, but necessary when discussing with people who are serious about "racism" so there is a common set of terms. – DVK Jan 17 '12 at 17:49
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There was very pronounced racism among Arabs, among others. While the dates are hard to pin down, a LOT of the tales in "1001 Nights" have pretty racist things in them.

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Hmm...could you elaborate? It's been a very long while since I read those but from what I recall, the racism mostly consisted of extolling fair skin among women. I don't recall reading about significant de facto or de jure social discrimination on the basis of skin color (so stuff like laws against people of a different race which is what I'm more interested in in) though I might be wrong. – Sid Jan 17 '12 at 16:43
@Sid - Among others, there were passaged about having sexual relations with African descended people which were discussed from pretty much the same angle/expressions as black/white pairings would be in the middle of Missisippi 80 years ago. Also, not 1001 related, many places in Hadith mention/stress Mohammed as being light skinned – DVK Jan 17 '12 at 17:52
jstor.org/pss/1166343 – DVK Jan 24 '12 at 4:19
up vote 1 down vote

Is it racism when Kyrgiz people kill Uzbeks? They are both of the same biological race, and both Muslims of the same faith but they kill each other because of their ethnicity. This kind of "racism" was widespread in the ancient times.

But I doubt the skin color meant much in old times because at those times people could not travel large distances and those who encountered blacks were familiar with them and could distinguish different ethnicities and kinds of blacks. That is they were considered just as ordinary neighboring peoples and subjects of ethnic, not racial "racism".

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