The parallel between European Nationalism and Racism

If one studies the history of the origin of nations and civilizations, it is

usually as a result of one country trying to conquer another country, tribe or
nation. The nation that succeeds in conquering the other nation usually evolves a
higher form of culture that makes her feel superior to other races of the world,
especially the enslaved race. This trend is very noticeable in European culture.

In the last 500 years, Europeans have conquered large parts of the world
and formed colonies everywhere. This has made European culture and
civilization the most prevalent and acceptable way of life anywhere in the world.
Europeans literally determine how people should think and look at life. This trend
has made Europeans to be proud and to look down on other people. The
philosophers and men of thought of Europe judge other cultures of the world
from their own narrow Eurocentric point of view. European culture therefore
tends to misunderstand and consequently look down on other cultures of the
world. This has led to a situation where Europeans feel so proud of their
achievements and conquests that they feel they are the best in the world and
every other culture is somewhat inferior. This has led to the social phenomenon
called “racism”. A lot of Euro-American societies have been racist for a long
period of time and racism is deeply entrenched in European culture and tradition.
In fact only a few centuries ago, to be a well cultured and civilized European, one
had to be a racist one way or the other. The problem is that racism is not
civilization at all, it only refers to the dark side of European culture and it show
cases the fact that Europeans have been militaristic for a long period of time.

As a result of this, a call to Nationallism (to be proud of your country),

could necessarily mean a call to racism. (i.e. to fight against people from an
inferior culture and bring glory to civilized Europe). Moreover, this racist attitude
is so embedded in European culture, music, dance and everyday living that it is
somewhat an unconscious part of European culture. A good example of this
phenomenon is Nazi Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a
nationalist who eventually became racist because he was so passionate for his
country. Besides anti-Semitism (or more specifically anti- jewishmess) was firmly
embedded in European culture for centuries before Hitler became president of
Germany. Race is still a very controversial issue in today’s world even with the
emergence of Barak Obama. There are still many racists in today’s world and I
believe that there ideology stems from the mistake of “ white nationalism”.
Such people believe Europe and America should be more civilized and in order to
promote European culture, foreigners living in Europe should be flushed out so
that their European nations can grow in peace without being contaminated by so
called “inferior people”. Since they believe that European culture represents the
height of human ingenuity and achievement, they do not want their culture to be
contaminated or spoilt by a so called inferior culture.

This racist tendency of European culture is further championed by the fact

that people from other races and cultures of the world tend to try and copy
European civilization and culture. Most people in various African countries are
ashamed to speak their native language handed to them by their forefathers and
even in America, some of the African Americans there tend to be ashamed to
their African heritage a phenomenon which is very strange. I feel that to solve
the problem of racism, white nationalism or European nationalism has to be
 redefined. Groups like the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) in America and Europe should try
and remove the racist element from their ideology of white/European
nationalism. Being proud of the artistic and scientific achievements of your
culture does not mean you have to look down or try and destroy other people. It
is mistake which has caused and is still causing all sorts of conflict. Europe has to
redefine itself the world is now multicultural and in this homogenous mixture of
different cultures, a new global culture can emerge that can blend the spiritual
aspect of African culture with the materialistic aspect of European culture and
produce the total man.