Yes. Many people would lead you to believe that racism developed 'naturally' out of humans' natural fear of unfamiliar people. No. Racism in America as we know it today is a perfectly crafted ideology that has only been strengthened with time. When white explorers and slave traders first came upon Black Africans, the most shocking aspect of the encounter was their "heathenism", not their skin tone. The fact that these people were not Christian (or affiliated with any sort of organized religion) was repulsive to the British, and it allowed them to easily justify enslaving such people. Don't let them gaslight us into believing otherwise. (SOURCE: George M Fredrickson - White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History).