Rather, it seems to be the #Janus-faced dark side of #Democracy:
Both ancient #Democracies, #Athen's and #Rome's, were also strongly #Imperialist and, stretching the 19th century invention of the nation state a bit anachronisticly, they were also #Nationalist as their "country" came first.

However, what was utterly new in the #AmericanExperiment, IMO, was the concept stated in that much-quoted, holy #US document, the #DeclarationOfIndependence:

"...We hold these truths to @xankarn @HistoPol

what👉 we consider the most obvious markers of race hardly mattered to them...👈

[1]"An empire of many colours? #Race and #Imperialism in #Ancient #Rome"

blog.oup.com/2021/09/an-empire…

So, 👉in essence, it can be argued, that the ancient and modern #Democracies all had #Racism thorougly engrained in the #Democratic fabric.👈

It is *not*, as #DunbarOrtiz claims, the #USStateReligion, it is not a unique #US creation.

@xankarn @HistoPol

An empire of many colours? Race and imperialism in Ancient Rome | OUPblog

Romans sometimes worried that you couldn’t tell enslaved and free people apart. By the second century CE, many senators were descended from Gauls and Iberians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Syrians—the very peoples Romans had conquered as they extended …

^{Becky Clifford (Oxford University Press)}

colonists.

What is more, as with all societies, even the ancient #Democracy of #Athens had a #Racist, #Nationalist vein:

"A good deal of evidence from the classical age suggests that Athenians did consider their citizenship something very valuable. 👉It was, for example, only sparingly granted to foreigners,👈 particularly in the fifth century.²" (#Manville)

Then, how about that other great example of #Democracy, ancient #Rome? Wasn't it an inclusive society? Writes @xankarn @HistoPol