Racism is an essential and important component of American culture.  Almost as much as the English language and; on the same level as a superficially Christian ethos, baseball, ketchup, Halloween, adoration of cars and firearms, idolatry for the Constitution, admiration for the rich just for being rich, and the conviction that a child's life will be irremediably damaged if he or she glimpses a woman's breasts, or hears one of the 2375 "dirty" words, even once.

A majority of the Americans think that they are not racist, because they believe that all races have equal rights and should have the same opportunities.  Which is great; but they too believe in the Axioms of American Racism:

1. Mankind is divided into races.

2. Every person belongs to one and only one race. There is no such thing as mixed race, or belonging to a race in greater or lesser degree.

3. One's race is decided at birth, based on the race of one's parents, and cannot ever change.

4. There are only five races: White, Black, Native, Hispanic, and Asian.

5. Children with parents of two different races will belong to one of those two races.  

6. In particular, if one of the parents is White, the children will belong to the other parent's race.

7. In particular, if one of the parents is Black, the children will be Black;

8. The race of a person is one of his or her most important attributes, even more than age or sex.

Axiom 2 varies somewhat.  Some Americans will add a  "Middle Eastern" ("Semitic", "Arab", "Muslim") race.  Some will lump the Jews with Whites, others will put them as a separate race, or classify them with the "Arabs".  Some may put the Indians (from India) in a separate race, others may merge them with Blacks or "Arabs" or whatever.  Some may even separate Irish and Italians from Whites.  And so on.  But those most seem to agree on those Five Races. 

Rationally these beliefs are total bullshit, of course.  Axiom 1, which is basically the definition  of racism, should be disbelieved by anyone who is not blind.  Axioms 2 to 7 contradict the most basic facts of biology and genetics; even farmers who breed animals should realize that they make no sense. Yet most Americans believe in them, just like they believe that the Sun is round and the sky is blue.

I lived in the US for 13 years, and have been following the American scene for almost another 30.  Never, even in the fairly "liberal" community I was part of, have I seen anyone explicitly question those axioms; or even entertain the thought that they could be questioned.

This kind of racism is specifically American.  While racism exists in every country, and is even official policy in some, I am not aware of any where those eight Axioms are held, even if only by a fraction of the people.  Not even other countries which developed from English colonies.  

For instance, racism is pervasive here in Brazil, but historically there has never been anything like axiom 2.  Here it has always been accepted that there is a continuous spectrum between "black" and "white".  (I am not sure why this happened.  Maybe because the first Portuguese colonizers were mostly males, instead of families. Or maybe bceause of the different policy of the Catholic Church towards "heathens".)

Axioms 6 and 7 are particulary characteristic.  Americans apparently do not even see Axioms 6 and 7 as being statements about genetics, but part of the English language: they are implied in the dictionary definition of the words "White" and "Black".  It is evident that, for them, wuestioning those "facts" would make as much sense as asking why the word "horse" cannot be used to refer to a dog or a shoe. 

Axioms 6 and 7 mathematically define a ranking of the Five Races, with Whites on top, Blacks at the bottom, and the other races fuzzily jumbled between them. 

And these axioms are acccepted by Americans of all "races", not just the Whites.  Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Natives do not refuse to be binned into their races -- even though the classification has been the basis for their oppression and exploitation, to this day.  Instead, in a natural reaction, Americans of those "races" assume theit classification with pride, and rally around it. 

So, where this specifically American form of racism came from?  It did not seem to come from England, even though racism of other forms has always been a big thing there.  It does not seem to have come from religion, even though the Puritan and other protestant denominations do not seem to put much emphasis on the equality of all humans, "love thy neighbor", etc.  Its origins seem to predate by a century the "scientific racism" that flourished in Europe, as the bastard child of Darwin's theory of species formation and of the nationalist sentiment in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Call me stupid by the answer only dawned on me a month ago: when I realized that, for the first 150 years of North American history, the words "Black" and "White" did not refer to skin color, biology, or ancestry.  They *literally* meant "slave" and "slave owner" (or at least someone who had the right to oe slaves).

With that insight, the Axioms suddenly make total sense.  Of course, throughout that time one was either a slave or master; there was no mixed or partially slave status.  Of course, whether one was a slave or owner was decided at birth and could  not be changed (at least not in the worst States). Of course, the children of slaves (almost always women) were slaves, whether the father was slave or master.  And, of couse, whether one was a slave was a much more important attriute that one's age or sex...

And the same insight explains the