Intragroup ethnic hierarchies among Black peoples count as racism when measured by European standards

Evidence

Making hierarchies of Black ethnic groups within the African kingdom can be termed ethnic racism, because it is at the intersection of ethnocentric and racist ideas, while making hierarchies pitting all Europeans over all Africans was simply racism. In the end, both classified a Black ethnic group as inferior. Standards of measurement for the ethnic groups within the African hierarchies were based on European cultural values and traits, and hierarchy-making was wielded in the service of a political project: enslavement. Senegambians were deemed superior to Angolans because they supposedly made better slaves, and because supposedly their ways were closer to European ways. Imported Africans in the Americas no doubt recognized the hierarchy of African peoples as quickly as imported White servants recognized the broader racial hierarchy. When and if Senegambians cast themselves as superior to Angolans to justify any relative privileges they received, Senegambians were espousing ethnically racist ideas, just like those Whites who used racist ideas to justify their White privileges. Whenever a Black person or group used White people as a standard of measurement, and cast another Black person or group as inferior, it was another instance of racism. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 206

Categorization

• DEFINE: Kendi extends his definitional scheme: racism is not confined to White-on-Black but any hierarchy measured by White standards, including Black-on-Black ethnic ranking.
• XREF: Extends the reader’s goal of placing arguments into his three-way scheme — this confirms the scheme makes nearly any intra-Black hierarchy also racist.