Whatever differences there are between us, we’re all part of the human race, right? So how come we use the term racist so commonly instead of other terms (like xenophobic for example) ?
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We’re using the colonizers’ language. The colonizers/conquerors saw the people of different ethnicities they dominated as subhuman, which came to be seen as a different race altogether.
Since the language refers to the colonized as a different race, the colonized (now speaking the colonists language) also refer to themselves as a different race.
While we now understand that humanity is a single species with variations in phenotype, the idea of having a superior/inferior group of people is not dead at all. Old idea, old terminology.
At least that’s my theory.
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