Quote by Albert Memmi: “The racist is a man who attempts to legitimize his egoism and to profit from it.”

This quote suggests that racism stems from a deep-seated selfishness. A racist uses prejudice to justify their own self-interest and to gain advantages, whether social, economic, or psychological, at the expense of others, disguising self-serving motives.

Following the civil rights movements, Memmi deepened the understanding of racism by examining the psychological motivations and benefits for those who perpetuate it, linking it to individual self-interest.

Tunisian-French writer and sociologist whose 1957 work The Colonizer and the Colonized became a foundational text of postcolonial theory. Born into a Jewish family in Tunis under French rule, he analyzed the psychological damage done to both colonizer and colonized.