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Every continent I have been on has, within each country on that continent, a pecking order of disdain for the members of other countries.

If you ever travel to South America you will, depending on the country you are in, find a fairly common hatred for the citizens of surrounding countries. I spent some time in Venezuela. Every other country was beneath them, the only undecided thing was if the Panamanians were worse than the Mexicans or the Columbians.

In Asia, its the same way.

In Europe, its the same way.

That skin color is sometimes tossed in the mix is incidental.

Hatred is a universal characteristic!

If you ever travel to South America you will, depending on the country you are in, find a fairly common hatred for the citizens of surrounding countries. I spent some time in Venezuela.

You're not kidding! I knew people from South America. No offense to anyone here of the following origins, as I don't share these opinions, but there was a pecking order: The Costa Ricans thought they were the best, the Venezuelans second... Puerto Rica was the third to last, Cuba was second to last, and Mexico was considered the bottom.

I'll never forget being at a nightclub with a friend whose friends were Costa Rican and Venezuelan. I met a very nice man there who was Puerto Rican and he came back to the table with me. They wouldn't even LOOK at him. They were insulted that I brought him over. Later, I knew a Puerto Rican woman who was disowned by her family for marrying a Cuban.

That's why I find it so laughable that the U.S. gov't labels everyone from those countries "Hispanic" when they come here. But, they all have one thing in common. They hate "gringos", though they love our money. We're the common enemy they share.

"I spent some time in Venezuela. Every other country was beneath them, the only undecided thing was if the Panamanians were worse than the Mexicans or the Columbians."

Interesting points that mirrors my own short experience in 1980s Venezuela. From an American of Mexican background I learned that one of the pecking-order determinators was language.

Mexicans were at the bottom of the linguistic ladder because theirs was the "dirtiest". It seems that the closer the spoken Spanish was to European Spanish Castillian, the "purer" you were. Because Mexico used so many indian words, they strayed the farthest. Ecuador came out on top.

Sid Cesear and Imogene Coco used to do hilarious takeoffs speaking a fractured German liberally sprinkled with just enough English that you still got the drift. I noticed that with some Latin co-workers and asked why. They said that throughout Latin America, Spanish words didn't mean the same, so when they came to something like "turkey", they used English as the common denominator. I found that out when I tried "cigarro" for cigar. Got nowhere until until guy said I wanted "tabac".

That skin color is sometimes tossed in the mix is incidental.
Indeed. It seems that humans will invent ANY reason to dislike another group, even if they have to make up some disparity.