We’ve been a deeply racist and violent country for longer than we’ve been a country. Built on genocide and slavery. We didn’t properly address our failures when we had the chance (Civil War should have ended with a new constitution and drastically different political structure to keep militant bigots from gaining power) and now we have this.
We keep living next to rivers because reliable water is the single most important consideration. Flooding happens. Most parts of the world independently developed sun and moon worship as well, and name colors in roughly the same order.