Racism Ignites Euphoric Feelings of Racial Superiority
“White supremacy ideology, based on a false learned behavior, reinforced by ingroup bias, cultural and systemic conditions, can ignite euphoric feelings of racial superiority, entitlement, and a desire to dominate other groups.” John Johnson 10/22/25
By John Johnson II
Racism is not innate—it is a learned behavior sustained by social, psychological, and economic rewards. Though neuroscience focuses on the trauma racism inflicts upon its victims, it rarely examines the hidden gratification it gives its perpetrators. The truth is stark: racism endures because it delivers pleasure—feelings of power, belonging, and superiority that activate the same dopamine-driven reward circuits as other addictive behaviors.
Pause here for a moment. If racism offered no benefits—no sense of advantage, identity, or control—would it have survived for centuries? Humans act when satisfaction or reward is gained, and the brain doesn’t distinguish between moral and immoral pleasure. Those who practice racism often feel socially elevated, justified, or powerful, triggering emotional reinforcement that can feel euphoric.
History confirms this. Slave owners in the American South didn’t merely tolerate slavery for economic gain—they thrived on the domination it provided. The ability to command, exploit, and dehumanize others brought both wealth and emotional gratification. Slave owners found perverse satisfaction in exercising absolute power—raping enslaved women and lynching Black men without consequence. Their immunity from law and accountability intensified their sense of superiority. This illusion of divine right became its own narcotic dominance.
After the Civil War, that sense of superiority evolved through segregation and voter suppression. Jim Crow laws, bans on interracial marriage, and “Whites Only” signs didn’t just maintain control—they validated identity. Public lynchings and acts of racial terror produced collective pleasure for white mobs. The cheers, smiles, and photographs from those horrific spectacles revealed that cruelty itself has become a public spectacle of affirmation. To claim racism yields no pleasure ignores centuries of evidence that it does.
Even now, racism adapts to modern spaces. When young Republicans in a group chat proudly shared racist jokes about Black Americans, their laughter reflected more than ignorance—it revealed enjoyment. They gained belonging, in-group approval, and the thrill of exclusion. Social scientists call this social dominance orientation—a preference for hierarchy that rewards prejudice with comfort and validation. The euphoria of “us over them” becomes its own reinforcement.
Meanwhile, neuroscience continues to emphasize the suffering of racism’s targets while overlooking its effects on racists themselves. If perpetrators truly felt guilt or discomfort equal to the harm they cause, the behavior would diminish. But because racism rewards its users—with power, status, and emotional ease—it persists. The pleasure of superiority outweighs the pain of empathy.
This reward system extends far beyond individuals; it’s woven into institutions. Racism grips the Executive, Legislative, Judicial branches, and the Supreme Court. Policies disguised as “law and order” criminalize minorities. Legislators restrict voting rights to maintain white political dominance. Courts have repeatedly sanctified inequity—from Plessy v. Ferguson to rulings that erode civil rights and affirmative action. Each branch reinforces a structure that normalizes racial privilege, making injustice feel justified and even satisfying to its beneficiaries.
Currently, the United States faces a level of division that may rival or even surpass what occurred prior to the Civil War. The dismantling of democracy happens not through open conflict but through denial and indifference. Citizens distracted by partisanship and fear ignore how racial dominance continues to poison the system. The core of that poison is not ignorance alone—it’s the enduring pleasure derived from feeling superior.
Until this nation confronts not only the harm racism causes but the satisfaction it provides to those who uphold it, the cycle will continue. Education alone cannot counter an addiction to power. Only when the pursuit of justice and equality produces greater psychological and social reward than domination will America begin to break free from its oldest and most dangerous socially constructed ideology, “white supremacy/ racism.”
YOU BE THE JUDGE!
