If you look at how the USA has progressed, the south is STILL stuck in certain trends that affect current day society. It’s why they’re the bible belt, but states like Arizona and California aren’t reffered to as “the south”.
Geographically it makes no sense. California, Arizona, New Mexico, they’re all geographically south, but that’s not what that means.
And racism in the south is just so much more amplified than it is in other states. When you think about it, the 1860s are not THAT long ago in terms of societies.
I think we’re still being affected by actions from those times. A family experiences hardship. So they raise their kid to not trust those that caused it. And that kid grows up and does the same. Without a break in the chain, it just perpetuates more of the same.
So we’re only about 8 generations removed from that time. It’s really not that much. And OBVIOUSLY slavery is going to cause racism.
But what if the slaves were left on Africa, and the plantation owners just had automated drones that did all the work?
What would racism today look like?
See what’s going on in European countries that haven’t used significant numbers of African slaves. You know, it’s possible to enslave your own population too. Anyway, there’s definitely racism in Europe, even though the history with regard to using African slaves is completely different. Nowadays, racists hate all foreigners regardless of skin color.
Actually, people seem to gravitate towards this weird sort of tribalism when the in-group and out-group are pretty arbitrary concepts. It doesn’t even have to be based on skin color, language or religion. People just hate other people because they were born in the wrong town.
If America never used any African slaves at all, normal human tribalism would still be there to mess things up. There would be groups based on arbitrary things that slang, facial features, dietary preferences, fashion choices etc. Racism wouldn’t disappear. It would just be aimed at some other group.