i can see where they're coming from... ish. something about being of European descent and conquering other peoples and the explanation for this being that we are of superior stock and have evolved a superior culture because of that. if you just think very straight forward about it, with no further consideration, that's where you end up. that's what the West thought for most of its history, after all. but it's also what China thought for most of its history and what the Romans thought of themselves versus the Germanic tribes, though neither of them had a notion of racial theory.

Rome was a mix of ethnicities, but as far as the Romans were concerned, you were Roman if you walked and talked like one, for the most part anyway. a notion of races having temperaments existed but as i understand it, it didn't carry much weight. Paul, disciple of Jesus, was a Roman citizen, born in what is modern day Turkey and probably had a dark Middle Eastern complexion, but had all the rights of a Roman citizen.

i like to point to the ancient Nubians as an example of a highly civilised black people. South America also had great civilisations. i mean, racism doesn't quite hold up to scrutiny does it...