Furguson, Missouri

[CarnivorousJelly]

rac·ism
/rāˌsizəm/
noun
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
"a program to combat racism"

(I know that was probably a rhetorical question)

Anyways, I read somewhere (actually, I believe it was my anthropology class last year) that slaves - mainly in Egyptian and Roman societies - were not chosen for their race (unlike when Europe began their conquest to take over the world) as there was less of a belief that skin colour was an indication of intelligence/civility. When white Europeans began taking over other civilizations, they could infer that everyone else was stupid (because of their own superior technology) and, since they started off with Africa/India/places with people of different skin colour to their own, a lot of people assumed that Caucasians were superior to all other races (and the best way to identify another race was skin colour).

As for "is it even legal", you can be persecuted for hate crimes here (Canada), but I don't believe it's illegal to have racist opinions.

Edit: Forgive me if I'm wrong; it's been a while since I took any social studies (anthropology ended in April and racism was a very small portion of it).