Thanks 'GUEST, Ifor' for supporting my economic theory of racism.

Following on from your point about the Atlantic Slave Trade, economics is probably at the heart of racism in the American Deep South, after the abolition of slavery there. Once African Americans living in the region could no longer be exploited through slavery they became potential competitors with 'European Americans'. It was in the economic interests of the latter to maintain the de-humanisation of the former in order to prevent them from sharing in the wealth of the region.