Global Racism and “Exclusionary Nationalism”

The renowned German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) once described human dignity as something that transcends classification. Those deeply familiar with Kant’s philosophy know with certainty that he viewed human beings as possessing intrinsic worth, rather than as mere means to the achievement of other people’s interests.

From this perspective, a strong argument can be constructed against contemporary forms of racism, which are now returning through the window after having been driven out through the doors during the Enlightenment. Human worth cannot legitimately be reduced to skin color, ethnic origins, or perhaps religious beliefs and spiritual convictions. Day after day, manifestations of intolerance find expression through instruments of violence, while hate crimes proliferate through communication platforms, particularly newer digital technologies. Between these developments lies an urgent question: How can people become less afraid of their neighbors?

Looking at the figures presented in UNESCO’s 2025 report on racism and discrimination, we find that this abhorrent phenomenon is rooted in race in 38 percent of cases, sex in 33 percent, and gender in 20 percent. According to international dictionaries, racism is defined as the belief that a person’s race is a fundamental determinant of their characteristics and abilities.

This premise constituted a pernicious foundation that led to global catastrophes. Certain peoples came to regard themselves as occupying a privileged position within a fictitious hierarchy of humankind, seeking nothing less than superiority over other human groups in pursuit of interests associated with domination, power, and imperial supremacy.

Other interpretations go further, describing racism as a form of “systematic oppression” that grants a particular group social and political advantages, thereby ensuring its economic prosperity.

Nevertheless, the problem of racism cannot be examined exclusively through the lens of the present. We must look back approximately four hundred years, when European investors regarded the enslavement of people from the African continent—which would later extend to the United States—as an ordinary commercial enterprise. These strong, laboring hands could be employed far more cheaply in the sugar, cotton, and tobacco industries. The notion of human dignity scarcely entered the minds of those who profited from this trade.

Greed and self-interest were therefore driving forces in the past, and the contemporary picture may not be all that different. Amid global competition and the relocation of industries beyond national borders, employment opportunities are diminishing. In certain places, citizens consequently feel that immigrants and refugees are competing with them for jobs and wages, transforming economic anxiety into racial hostility toward entire groups of people.

A rigorous and meticulous investigation into the roots of racism reveals a disturbing dimension that may be described as “scientific racism.” European scholars produced alarming interpretations in this field, which once provided the foundations for racist ideologies that continue to spread today, seemingly beyond any capacity for reversal.

In 1776, the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach classified humanity into five groups, placing Caucasians, or the white race, at the top of his hierarchy.

On the western side of the Atlantic, in the rapidly emerging United States, which was becoming a formidable competitor to Europe, the scientist and physician Samuel George Morton advanced a theory in the mid-nineteenth century suggesting that brain size was linked to intelligence. He concluded that white people possessed larger skulls and were therefore intellectually superior.

Such interpretations paved the way for Nazism, which relied heavily on racial classifications and employed eugenics in pursuit of establishing the Third Reich, which was intended to endure for a thousand years.

Yet these pseudoscientific theories and disciplines led to global devastation, international warfare, and genocides. They deprived humanity of the promise of peace and sowed, in its place, the seeds of war and discord.

One cannot help but wonder with bewilderment and concern: Was globalization not expected to eliminate borders and overcome barriers, transforming the world into a vast space for human connection and communication in the service of humanity’s well-being, wherever people may travel, in their waking hours and in their sleep?

Here, a historical paradox becomes apparent. Rather than achieving these aspirations, globalization seems to have contributed to reviving fear of the Other, intensifying anxieties surrounding national identities, and entrenching the rejection of immigrants and minorities on ethnic or religious grounds.

A considerable part of the ongoing, often violent discourse surrounding racial divisions can be attributed to the resurgence of what might be called “murderous identities,” whereby those who differ from the dominant group come to be perceived as threats to its language, religion, and perhaps even national traditions.

In this context, it is hardly surprising that populism and what may be termed “exclusionary nationalism” have gained ground. Added to these developments are digital hate speech and the scourge of fabricated content generated by artificial intelligence and disseminated widely among populations. The real catastrophe occurs when racism becomes a political ideology—a development against which prominent philosophers have issued warnings.