Human High Culture

High Human Culture was the Galactic Empire's codified policy of humanocentric racism. It centered around the belief (long, if privately, held by many in the human-dominated Core) that humans were inherently superior to other races.

At the time of the foundation of the Galactic Empire, there were several active, large populist groups on Coruscant that advocated concepts of human supremacy. These were quickly assimilated into the nascent COMPNOR. Their views were then coalesced into a coherant vision primarily by Crueya Vandron, Ishin-Il-Raz, and Sate Pestage.

The tenents of High Human Culture were that humans were the only truly intelligent and productive members of any society, prime examples being that it was almost exclusively humans who had formed and led the Old Republic and the human worlds of the Core were some of the oldest, richest, and most advanced in the Galaxy.

As such, through the repealing of such laws as the Rights of Sentience and the creation of new acts, all non-humans were made second-class citizens (if citizens at all). Non-human slavery was re-legalized. Only 'pure' (ie, those made exclusively by humans and with no help from non-humans) works of art (such as operas, holovids, books, etc) were allowed to be produced, viewed, and spread, since only human culture was worthy enough to be allowed to prosper in the New Order. Nonhumans were 'actively discouraged' to participate in government or join the Imperial military, and human governors and moffs were placed in command of nonhuman worlds and sectors.

However, there were small loopholes: if nonhumans were devoted enough to Emperor Palpatine, and focused solely upon serving his Empire, then they would be left unmolested (although this seems to have been applied only to aliens who were close to humans in appearance). Examples of such tolerance were Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa. It is also believed Palpatine was not a speciesist.

High Human Culture were enforced and imprinted upon the Empire's citizenry by the Coalition for Progress, Imperial Board of Culture, and the Sub-Adult Groups.

The views of High Human Culture would be kept alive in the New Republic for years after the Empire's defeat by fringe groups such as the Human League.

Behind the Scenes
The concept of "High Human Culture" was probably included to give the Empire another parallel to Nazi Germany.