see, what's wrong with this piece is that the author is making it seem like the racist undertones in indigenous norse religion are different than exist in other religions. it's absolutely correct to point out that this religion is racist. but, an astute reader should see the parallels with other religions, rather than attempt to draw a set of false contrasts.

so, what the indigenous european religion was about was ancestor worship. as one of the people interviewed points out, it wouldn't make sense for an african or a japanese person to sit around and worship dead vikings. nor would it make any sense for a german to worship dead japanese people - despite the fact that the indigenous japanese religion is, in fact, also about ancestor worship, as are many of the indigenous african religions.

the muslims don't worship their ancestors. but, a non-muslim in a muslim society is to be treated as a second-class citizen - this is almost verbatim, from their religious texts. it's a totally racist religion. judaism attaches itself to an ethnicity and claims that ethnicity is god's chosen ethnicity, then casts out the rest of the world as gentiles. the greeks saw the rest of the world as barbarians. the caste system in india is mostly ethnic-based. buddhists aren't any better, either.

the only religion that i can think of that isn't inherently racist is christianity, and it was probably a lot more racist to start with, before it was co-opted by the roman authorities and used as a means of counter-acting racism. but, the roman empire was a confederacy of disparate peoples, put together only partly through conquest and partly through the peaceful transfer of property; when you inherit a territory as an advanced and civilized culture, that is different than conquering it while still in a phase of barbarism. so, christians are weird, all around.

and, christians, themselves, can certainly be racist, despite the strangeness of their religion, in comparison to others, on the topic.

so, yeah - norse religion is racist. like all the other religions. because that's what religion is really all about.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/qbxpp5/how-a-thor-worshipping-religion-turned-racist-456