From Desert Sands to Neo-Nazis: The Never-Ending Absurdity of Racial Supremacy
“These supremacists are so convinced of their cultural, linguistic, and religious superiority that they see anything else as barbaric.”
In a world that claims to be advancing, you’d think these psychopaths would evolve past their primitive hatreds. But nope, they cling to their bigotry like it's a damn family heirloom. For some, it really is a family heirloom. Whether Arab, Turk, Latin, Israeli, Indian, Chinese, or White, their loathing for each other is almost impressive in its intensity. What's truly remarkable is their unified disdain for indigenous peoples and minorities.
Humanity's Timeless Talent for Hatred
Racial supremacy is as old as dirt. From ancient empires to modern nation-states, the belief in the inherent superiority of one group over another has driven countless atrocities. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought they were better than the "barbarians" around them. The Crusades? Just an excuse for Christians to butcher Muslims and Jews. European colonialism? White supremacy gone global, enslaving Africans, wiping out indigenous populations in the Americas, and stomping over Asia and Africa.
But let's delve into a telling historical example conveniently often overlooked: the Umayyad Empire, glorified by Arabic state propaganda, but just as rotten with racial supremacy. Non-Arabs, even those who converted to Islam, were treated like dirt. The concept of the mawali, or non-Arab Muslims, showed just how deep the discrimination went. Arab Muslims were the top dogs, and everyone else was just second-class.
The Ummayad Caliphate, the second of the four major caliphates after the prophet Muhammad's death, was an Arab-centric dynasty. These rulers came from the Ummayad clan of the Quraysh tribe, the same tribe as Muhammad but a different clan, which already gave them a leg up. From the start, they saw the empire as an Arab empire, not a universal Muslim one. They clung to pre-Islamic Arab traditions, holding Arabs as inherently superior to everyone else.
Their economic structure? Rigged to favor Arab Muslims. Non-Muslims, or dhimmis, had to pay the jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, which was a nice little cash cow for the empire. Contrary to popular Islamophobic belief, the jizya varied across Islamic dynasties and, in many cases, was actually lower than the taxes imposed on Muslims. When non-Arabs converted to Islam, they were supposed to be exempt from the jizya. But the Ummayad rulers, greedy for money, found ways to keep taxing the mawali, reclassifying the tax or finding other means. This economic discrimination ensured the state’s coffers remained full and kept the mawali in their place.
By keeping the mawali down, the Ummayads maintained tight control over their empire. Arab Muslims got all the perks—administrative jobs, military roles, social privileges. Power stayed in the hands of the Arab elite, keeping the newly converted non-Arabs out in the cold. Although Islam preaches equality among Muslims, the Ummayad rulers twisted religious texts to justify their policies, emphasizing interpretations that favored Arab dominance. They selectively enforced doctrines to keep the status quo. Sound familiar?
Fast forward to the 20th century, and we see the horrors of the Holocaust, where Nazi ideology deemed Jews, Romani people, and other groups as inferior, leading to their systematic extermination. The Jim Crow laws in the United States institutionalized white supremacy, enforcing racial segregation and disenfranchising African Americans. Apartheid in South Africa brutally oppressed the non-white majority, legally segregating and economically exploiting them until the 1990s.
Despite claims of progress, modern supremacists are just as venomous as their predecessors. The Turkish supremacist sneers at the Kurds and Syrians. The Arab supremacist despises the indigenous Amazigh, Assyrian and Kurd. The Chinese can't stand the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. Israelis treat Palestinians like dirt under their feet. And the white supremacist? They’re the equal opportunity hater—everyone who isn’t white is fair game. At least they're consistent in their discrimination.
Bigotry Gets a Legal Makeover
Take India's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019. This law offers a path to citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. While it claims to protect religious minorities, it's blatantly discriminatory against Muslims. By excluding Muslims, the CAA has fueled religious tensions and further marginalized an already vulnerable community. This law, combined with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), threatens to render millions of Muslims stateless, showcasing modern-day supremacist policy in action. Or Israel’s Aaliyah program, which exclusively facilitates Jewish migration to Israel while denying Palestinians the right to return to their ancestral homes. This selective policy institutionalizes Jewish supremacy, marginalizing non-Jews and reinforcing systemic discrimination, leading to further segregation and inequality within the region.
A F*cking Legacy of Harassment
Even now, these bullies harass natives, gloating over conquests centuries old, insisting the formerly conquered should be grateful, should view their oppressors as saviors. Fun fact: many of these supremacists (white supremacists aside) have indigenous ancestry but have been brainwashed by generations of colonial propaganda. It doesn’t matter how poor or insignificant the supremacist is; they will always find a way to look down on the 'conquered.' It's pathetic, really. In many cases, that sense of superiority is all they have left. You’ll find an Arab glue-sniffing drug addict in the streets of Casablanca walking past an Amazigh street vendor with his nose held high, claiming he’s a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad. Attaching religiosity to his feelings of superiority. Imagine, the guy actually thinks he’s of (a self-ascribed) noble stock.
In North Africa, the Amazigh people have been sidelined for centuries. Despite recent strides in Algeria and Morocco, Amazigh activists still face harassment and imprisonment. The government's reluctance to fully integrate Amazigh language and culture into the national identity says it all. Morocco appears to be making strides towards respecting its natives through progressive laws, but it is facing pushback and backlash from pan-Arab nationalists.
The Turkish treatment of the Kurds is a textbook example. Decades of repression, from language bans to military assaults on Kurdish towns, climaxed with the 2016 crackdown on Kurdish media and political organizations. The extent to which Turkish supremacists will go to erase Kurdish identity is beyond insanity. It’s remarkable on how the Kurds have pushed back for so long.
China’s treatment of the Uyghurs and Tibetans is another example. Mass detentions, forced labor, cultural erasure in Xinjiang—Chinese supremacist policies in full swing. The government’s attempts to Sinicize these regions by suppressing their languages and religions are well-documented.
Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is a daily reminder of supremacist arrogance. The ongoing occupation, settlement expansions, systemic discrimination—it’s all there, underpinned by a belief in Israeli superiority. The 2018 nation-state law, enshrining Jewish supremacy, is the cherry on top.
And the white supremacists? Well, they’re nothing if not persistent. From the Ku Klux Klan to modern-day neo-Nazis, these groups have terrorized minorities for centuries. Their recent resurgence in the US and Europe, marked by violent rallies and hate crimes, shows they’re as hateful as ever.
Stuck on Stupid
These supremacists are stuck in their self-made hell, bound by their own stupidity. And frankly, it's exhausting to watch them spew their idiocy online and on TV. You'd think after all this time, humanity might have learned something, but no. Same old story, same old song and dance. It’s enough to make you lose faith in the whole damn species. So, what will it take for us to finally break free from this cycle of hatred? When will we f*cking learn? Seriously, when?
