A series of 15th-century papal bulls, starting with Dum Diversas in 1452, form the basis of the "Doctrine of Discovery". These edicts gave Christian rulers authority to conquer and enslave non-Christian peoples, justifying European colonialism and the seizure of Indigenous lands.
That was the beginning of white supremacy. The doctrine lead to the systematic dispossession and enslavement of indigenous peoples. It established a racial hierarchy that placed European Christians at the top and designated non-Christian Indigenous peoples as inferior, providing the theological and legal basis for conquest and colonization. These beliefs were at the heart of Theological anti-Judasm, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and American Slavery.
The doctrine defined Indigenous people as "savages," "barbarians," and "uncivilized," creating a theological framework that considered Indigenous peoples less than human. This narrative of European Christian superiority and racial hierarchy became a foundational building block for white supremacy and Manifest Destiny. European explorers and colonizers took their white supremacist beliefs with them everywhere they went. Africa, the Americas, India, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, the South Seas Islands. It spread like cancer.
In the 1823 Supreme Court case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall invoked the Doctrine of Discovery to rule that Native Americans had lost their right to "complete sovereignty" upon being "discovered". The decision established that only the discovering European nation—and its successor, the United States—had ultimate dominion over the land, while Indigenous nations only retained a "right of occupancy". This case forms the basis of U.S. federal Indian law and has been cited as recently as 2005.
My girlfriend Lory is a Native American. She's a Kumeyaay tribe member. She's been treated badly by white people in the past and still is to this day. She's told me about how she was tormented mercilessly as a child. "Pocahontas" was her nickname all throughout her school years.
The problem is that many white people of European descent see other races as less than human. Blacks, asians, latinos, natives ... they're fit to clean houses and work in the fields. And that's it.
I've heard them say it. Jesus is a white guy. Jesus is an American. Jesus handed Thomas Jefferson the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Jesus only cares about America. That's how white christian nationalists justify how they think. Jesus is on their side and only them.
Well, listen. I have no idea if this Jesus dude ever actually existed or not. I'm not particulalry religous as you can probably tell. But if he ever was real, then he wasn't a white guy. He couldn't have been an American because no one besides Lory's ancestors had ever been to America in those days. He wasn't even a Christian. He was Jewish. That's how completely out of touch with reality these people are. Of course if Jesus were real he'd care about EVERYONE. Not just white people, not just Americans and not just Christians.
