Ugly Outcome of Racism

In his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler asserted that the German race was the Aryan superrace that was destined to rule the world. Hitler felt that the Jews, who he said were responsible for sabotaging the German economy, were an obstacle to this glorious destiny. Thus followed the extermination of Jews and other minorities of Europe, which was indisputably one of the darkest chapters of human history. This was the disastrous outcome of racist ideas, including those of Gobineau and Chamberlain.

Such ugliness was not limited to Europe, however. Across the ocean in the so-called new world, the same sort of unfounded ideas brought untold suffering to generations of innocent people. Although African slaves were finally freed in the United States after the Civil War, laws were passed in many states prohibiting blacks from having many of the privileges that other citizens enjoyed. Why? White citizens thought that the black race did not have the intellectual capacity to participate in civic duties and government.

Just how deeply such racial feelings were entrenched is illustrated by a case involving an antimiscegenation law. This law prohibited marriages between blacks and whites. In convicting a couple who broke this law, a judge said: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents, and but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages.”

The judge said this, not in the 19th century and not in a backward area, but in 1958​—and not more than 60 miles [100 km] from the U.S. Capitol! Indeed, it was not until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all laws against interracial marriages.

Such discriminatory laws​—as well as segregation in schools, churches, and other public institutions and discrimination in employment and housing—​led to the civil unrest, protests, and violence that have become the realities of life in the United States and many other places. Destruction of life and property aside, the anguish, hatred, and personal indignities and sufferings that have resulted can only be regarded as the shame and disgrace of a so-called civilized society.

Thus, racism has become one of the most divisive forces afflicting human society.

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Nazi extermination camps were a disastrous outcome of racist ideas