Today’s message isn’t about blended families — it’s about understanding the systems that shaped the world we’re all living in. Sometimes the best way to protect our families is to teach the truth behind the structures that divide people. When you understand how hierarchy was created, you can recognize it, challenge it, and refuse to pass it on. This is a teaching moment —A moment that can open our eyes not just to history, but to the world in which we’re raising our children.
The Early Sources of Division Among Civilizations
Slavery was not the original cause of division between civilizations. Before slavery became a tool for separating societies and people, other forces and methods contributed to the fragmentation and conflict among groups.
The Role of Skin Color in Domination
Domination based on skin color did not arise spontaneously. It was driven by the desire of those in power to maintain their status, to be respected, and even admired. These motivations led to the use of skin color to enforce hierarchy and preserve the privileges of the powerful.
This practice dates back to ancient Egypt.During the rule of pharaohs, the Pharaoh, nobles, priests, and wealthy landowners sat at the top. Domination ruled through wealth, land, lineage, class, and closeness to the royal court. Farmers, laborers, and servants were considered inferior. Skin color during this time was not the deciding factor of slavery. Skin tone was merely a physical trait. Historical records show that enslaved people were from different regions throughout Egypt, and some were also Egyptians.
The Expansion of Europe Was the Deciding Factor of Hierarchy
European powers decided that hierarchy should be determined by skin color. This was not a decision made by ancient civilizations, early tribes, nature, or even God. Around 1400–1600, the European colonial system deliberately built a strategic hierarchy in which light skin was superior to dark skin — a system built to justify domination, land theft, and slavery.
The Role of Skin Color in Domination
Domination based on skin color did not arise spontaneously. It was driven by the desire of those in power to maintain their status, to be respected, and even admired. These motivations led to the use of skin color to enforce hierarchy and preserve the privileges of the powerful.
During the rule of pharaohs, the pharaoh, nobles, priests, and wealthy landowners sat at the top. Domination ruled through wealth, land, lineage, class, and closeness to the royal court. Farmers, laborers, and servants were considered inferior. Skin color during this time was not the deciding factor of slavery. Skin tone was merely a physical trait. Historical records show that enslaved people were from different regions throughout Egypt, and some were also Egyptians.
The Expansion of Europe Was the Deciding Factor of Hierarchy
European powers decided that hierarchy should be determined by skin color. This was not a decision made by ancient civilizations, early tribes, nature, or even God. Around 1400–1600, the European colonial system deliberately built a strategic hierarchy based on colorism. Colorism is the preference for lighter skin, and in their strategy, light skin was superior to dark skin — a system built to justify domination, land theft, and slavery.
During the Trans‑Atlantic slave trade, Europeans created a racial system — a system that named Africans as inferior, tying dark skin to servitude and light skin to power. This was their justification for enslaving millions of Africans. Their system spread across continents and became part of law, religion, education, family structure, and more. Colorism became the deciding factor not only in slavery but in communities, higher class, treatment, and opportunity. Colorism was taught, enforced, and passed across continents and down through history.
The Need for Power – The Deciding Factor Behind Slavery
The one thing both Egyptians and Europeans had in common was the need for hierarchy — the need to become powerful. Power that needed to go beyond the lines of class. In Europe, class was the first weapon of domination, but as Europe began colonizing and enslaving people, this act needed justification. That justification incorporated racial hierarchy on top of class hierarchy, creating a system that said: white was superior and dark was inferior. It was a combination that became the backbone of global inequality.
The Global Spread
Every part of society was shaped in one way or another by racial hierarchy. The consequences did not end with slavery. The damage caused massive destruction for many societies — Indigenous erasure in America, Jim Crow in the United States, Apartheid in Africa, and segregation in the Caribbean. These are just a few examples. European colonization left its mark everywhere, even in Australia, on the Aboriginal people. Like Africans, they were declared “not human” under British law. The same method of ownership was used in Australia with Aboriginal people as with Native Americans to claim their land. Their children were also taken from families to “whiten” them. In America, children were taken to teach them religious ways and make them “civil.”
Ignoring the Truth Justified the Act
The sad part is that domination will always find a lesser human to rule. In Egypt and among the early Europeans, it was class. Human values were determined by status. The higher the status, the more valuable you were to society. Later, the Europeans added colorism. This method was used to remove the darker complexion from humanity altogether. Reducing them to animals removes the guilt of treating human beings as less than human and sometimes worse than animals. It was easier to use them as slaves and mistreat them if you denied they were human beings altogether.
Until man truly evolves, there will always be a reason to put oneself above another. The rule of domination is to find a difference and lessen its importance. This could be you standing within the hierarchy, where skin color, gender, age, language, religion, or any other trait marks the differences that set you apart from others. The truth is, there’s no difference among human beings. A person is simply a person, regardless of status or skin color. No one is better, and no one is lesser.
The Home of Blended Lineage Families 