>I find it interesting that this one main idea or concept
>goes back to Artistotle and finds it way through several
>known philosophers and thinkers in several European
>countries and even to the sciences (Darwinism) and
>colonialism.

Indeed, but the point of my post was that concepts such as these were absolutely NOT embraced by all of Europe, thus rendering the term "European concept" meaningless. To label something as a European concept is to lump 44 countries together. This is a GREEK concept, and new concepts are generally viewed and judged by other cultures--some accepting, some rejecting.

If Black people or people of color are placed
>at the bottom of the chain then it would make sense that
>they needed to be infiltrated and maybe destroyed or
>subjugated.

The concept of the great chain was used improperly first and foremost for the feudal system, and its SIMILAR (not the concept itself) ideologies were used to justify racism. This being said, the fact that, under this overall notion, racism exists, does not make racism a European concept. There were whites who owned white slaves, and blacks who owned black slaves, so the concept itself was never implemented for race. It was the expansion of the concept (similarly to American slave owners using the Bible to justify their actions) that leads to such an illusion. Slavery was the economic foundation for ancient civilizations. They didn't know any better. There were countless whites who were indentured servants who were expelled from Europe. I am quite confident they didn't believe they were simply a lower link on a chain.

>I've been reading up on the "great chain" concept since my
>senior year of high school when I attempted to find the
>origins of racism. Back then and now it seems as if this
>European concept that crosses country boarders and times in
>history has formed the very basis of imperialism and other
>"isms" that we know about today.

The expansion and bastardization of the concept did, in fact, create racism, but it is absurd and offensive to assert that racism is a European concept, because that is exactly what you're implying. Civilizations conquered other civilizations all the time, each one trying to implement their own imperialist standards. It just so happens that western whites found the right formula, bastardizing a number of fixations, including religion, patrioticism, and racism. peace,