Racism
Belief in racial superiority driving discrimination and political systems.
Racism is the conviction that different human groups have distinct behavioral traits tied to inherited characteristics, allowing them to be ranked based on the superiority of one race or ethnicity over another. It can also refer to prejudice, discrimination, or hostility directed at people because of their different ethnic background. Today, racism often stems from social perceptions of biological differences between groups.
These views can manifest as social actions, practices, beliefs, or political systems that rank races as inherently superior or inferior to one another, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. Attempts to justify racist beliefs through science—known as scientific racism—have been overwhelmingly proven false. Political systems like apartheid support discriminatory laws and practices, and racist ideology often includes nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, and supremacism.
Although contemporary social science treats race and ethnicity as separate concepts, they have long been used interchangeably in popular speech and older research. "Ethnicity" is often used in a way similar to the traditional meaning of "race"—dividing human groups based on qualities seen as essential or innate, like shared ancestry or behavior. Racism and racial discrimination frequently describe discrimination on ethnic or cultural grounds, regardless of whether those differences are called racial. The United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination states that there is no distinction between discrimination based on race or ethnicity, though the terms have different meanings that may not always align. It also concludes that superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous, and that there is no justification for racial discrimination anywhere, in theory or practice.
Racism is often seen as a relatively modern concept, emerging during the European age of imperialism, shaped by capitalism and the Atlantic slave trade, which it helped drive. It was also a major force behind racial segregation in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and apartheid in South Africa. Racism in 19th- and 20th-century Western culture is especially well documented and serves as a reference point in studies o
- field
- Sociology, political ideology, legal discrimination
- known_for
- Belief in racial superiority; driving force behind segregation, apartheid, and genocides
- key_concept
- Racial discrimination defined by UN as distinction based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin
Lore & Background
Racism is frequently described as a relatively modern concept, evolving during the European age of imperialism, transformed by capitalism, and the Atlantic slave trade, of which it was a major driving force. It was also a major force behind racial segregation in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and of apartheid in South Africa. Racism has played a role in genocides such as the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, as well as colonial projects including the European colonization of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the population transfer in the Soviet Union including deportations of indigenous minorities.
Reader's Guide
The term racism came into widespread usage in the Western world in the 1930s, when it was used to describe the social and political ideology of Nazism. The UN does not define 'racism' but defines 'racial discrimination' as any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that impairs human rights. The UN's 1978 UNESCO Declaration states all human beings belong to a single species and are born equal in dignity and rights. Most biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists reject a taxonomy of races; human genome research indicates race is not a meaningful genetic classification. The UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination concludes that superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous.
Did You Know?
- The term 'racism' is a noun describing the state of being racist, i.e., subscribing to the belief that the human population can or should be classified into races with differential abilities.
- The origin of the root word 'race' is not clear; linguists generally agree it came to English from Middle French, with a recent proposal deriving it from Arabic ra's or Hebrew rosh.
- The Oxford English Dictionary (2008) defines 'racialism' as an earlier term than racism, now largely superseded by it, and cites 'racialism' in a 1902 quote.
- The UN definition of racial discrimination does not make any distinction between discrimination based on ethnicity and race.
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