In human nature there seems to be some innate requirement to create particular groups of people and to erect barriers that distinguish, encompass and protect these groups from others. Over time people have looked to a huge variety of features by which these collectives may be defined, groups have been and are classified along religious, economic, social and cultural lines to name but a few. There are a multitude of stimuli for the formation of these different distinguishing features, but once the features have been recognized and the group has been formed, the individual will cling to this group. The need to form these groups remains something of a mystery, but perhaps can be brought down to an inherent, universal insecurity existent in all human beings. .
Racial groups are an example of this classification, people are categorized into certain sets according to the way that they are perceived to look, act, speak and generally live. While there is no denying that there are obvious differences between different groups of people throughout the world, these classifications are made because they serve a purpose. They help to justify many actions such colonialism and the exploitation of indigenous people and their resources. They also give an individual a sense of belonging and a confidence in their own collective ideals, by demeaning other groups. As such many racists in the past have used race to explain features rather than collective, universal features to explain race. This stems from the fact that there are not such clear cut distinctions that can be made between races to validate universal assumptions regarding a group, rather racists have taken the idea of race distinctions as given and have then used these seemingly baseless distinctions to explain the nature of people within the group. .
Historians have traced the first signs of racism to Christianity, in the form of anti-Semitism.
