RAZD writes:
Even though genocide or "ethnic cleansing" is not strictly racist (serbs and albanians are the same race) we can use this as an example.
Not just Serbs and Albanians, when you get two groups laying into each other, they're usually from the same or closely related groups, not surprisingly, because they're in the same part of the world.
The Serbs and Albanians have cultural differences, primarily, religion.
So, whether you're looking at the two groups in northern Ireland or the Israelis and Palestinians, the Hindu/Muslim divide in Kashmir, and many other examples in the present world, it's clear that "Us v. Them " human conflicts actually have nothing to do with race at all.
When there's division and conflict between two groups who are perceived as being racially different, then people start talking about this thing called racism, forgetting that the groups actually have cultural differences that are the origins of their different outlooks and identities, just like those involved in disputes who are perceived to be of the same race.
The Nazis certainly built up a race mythology about themselves and the Jews, but the essential differences were actually cultural, and the two groups had been kept apart for an astonishing 1700 years in that area of Europe by two religions. Without this form of cultural separation, they'd have been indistinguishable more than a thousand years ago.
The underlying cause of this separate identity is rarely emphasized in history books. Religion, after all, is supposed to be a good thing, isn't it? Not the underlying cause of masses of killing.
Far better if the blame could be pointed at something else, a much abused scientific theory, for example, then religious people can remain in their happy cocoon of self-delusion.