Steiner occasionally characterized specific races, nations and ethnicities in ways that have been deemed racist by critics.[314] This includes descriptions by him of certain races and ethnic groups as flowering, others as backward, or destined to removed or disappear.[313] He presented explicitly hierarchical views of the spiritual evolution of different races,[315] including—at times, and inconsistently—portraying the white race, European culture or Germanic culture as representing the high point of human evolution as of the early 20th century, although he did describe them as destined to be superseded by future cultures.[313]