Racist means promoting, rooted in, or indicative of racism, as in racist ideology or racist comments.

It can be used as a noun meaning a racist person.

Racism is most commonly used lớn name a size of prejudice in which a person believes in the superiority of what they consider to lớn be their own “race” over others. This most often takes the size of believing that those with other skin colors—especially darker skin colors—are inferior physically, intellectually, morally, and/or culturally, & mistreating and discriminating against them because of this. Such a belief typically promotes the notion that white people are “the default”—that whiteness is “normal” and that people with other appearances are the ones who are “different” (và “inferior”).

The word racism is also used to mean a system of oppression based on this kind of prejudice that is thought to be embedded into lớn the fabric of society và its institutions, resulting in ongoing mistreatment và injustice in many, many forms. This is often called systemic racism, institutional racism, or structural racism. These terms imply that such racism is upheld by laws, policies, traditions, và institutions—và the people who keep them in place.

When used in this way, racism typically refers khổng lồ a system that has oppressed people of color all over the world throughout history. Such a system is often thought khổng lồ operate through Trắng people using the advantages that the system gives them (often called white privilege) lớn maintain their supremacy over people of color (often called white supremacy). Particularly in the U.S., it’s used to refer khổng lồ a system that has historically oppressed & continues to lớn oppress Blachồng people, Native (also called Indigenous) Americans, and other people of color, including Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, & Australian Aboriginal & other Oceanic peoples.

Other forms of bigotry, intolerance, và xenophobia, such as anti-Semitism & Islamophobia, are often considered to lớn be rooted in racism.

The word racist can be used as a noun meaning a racist person or as an adjective meaning “of or promoting racism,” as in racist ideology or racist comments.

What is race?

To fully define racism, we have sầu to lớn define race. Throughout history, the word race has commonly been used to refer khổng lồ a classification of humans based on various physical characteristics, especially skin color, facial form, và eye shape. But sorting people inlớn such races is truly arbitrary—they’re not based on meaningful scientific differences (lượt thích, for example, those used to lớn determine legitimate scientific classifications such as species và genus). Although the obsession with the difference in people’s skin color is one of the foundations of racism, skin color is in fact not even a reliable indicator of how genetically different or similar people are. (Difference in skin color is due to having differing levels of a pigment, called melanin, in the skin. Melanin is also a factor in hair color.)

Today, race is best understood as a socially constructed category of identification based on physical characteristics, ancestry, historical affiliation, or shared culture. Many people identify as a thành viên of a particular race based on one or more of these factors, & doing so helps members of oppressed groups lớn khung communities.

Xem thêm: Hi Five Là Gì - Đi Tìm Nguồn Gốc Và Ý Nghĩa Của Hành Động “Hi

The first records of the word racist come from the 1900s. The word racism derives from the French word racisme, which is first recorded in the 1800s. The suffix -ism is used in racism to indicate a doctrine of prejudice—in this case, a prejudice based on race (-ism is used in the same way in words lượt thích sexism & ageism). The suffix -ist is used lớn turn it inlớn a noun or adjective sầu (as it is in the words sexist & ageist).

The first known record of the word racism being used in English is from a 1902 speech by Colonel Richard Henry Pratt at the annual meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian: “Association of races và classes is necessary in order to destroy racism & classism.” What may seem like a positive sầu statement was actually said in the context of a speech based on the classically racist notion that Native sầu Americans need to lớn be “civilized” in order lớn be assimilated into lớn the dominant White American society.

Is racism a belief, a pattern of behavior, or a system? Racism certainly relies on the belief that certain groups of people are inferior. People who are racist dehumanize these groups by treating them as subhuman, often through the use of racist language. In this way, racism prevents people from seeing others as individuals. But those who advocate for the recognition that racism is systemic often note that referring to racism as simply a belief ignores these actions taken due khổng lồ such a belief và the oppression said lớn be embedded in such systems.

Those who use the word racism khổng lồ refer to lớn more than a belief also often point out the importance of recognizing the imbalance of power in the equation. Namely, they note that racism is a tool of the dominant group, the group with economic, social, or cultural power—in most cases, Trắng people. (Use of the term reverse racism, such as lớn refer to prejudice against Trắng people, is often criticized for dismissing the role of power in most cases of racism & its systemic use.)

Many people tkết thúc lớn think of racism as glaring and obvious: racist slurs, slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, lynching, and other violent hate crimes. But racism exists in many forms. In the U.S., examples of racism implemented explicitly & on an institutional màn chơi include Blaông chồng Codes, Jyên Crow laws, and segregation, which denied African Americans many basic rights & resulted in inferior schools, housing, & access lớn jobs—all inequities that continue to lớn persist in some khung. In South Africa, White South Africans used the policy of apartheid lớn segregate and economically và politically oppress Blachồng South Africans và other nonWhite citizens. In nước Australia, Aborigines have sầu been subjected to lớn racist mistreatment since the arrival of white settlers, và other Indigenous peoples across the world have been oppressed under racist colonialism & imperialism.

Other forms of racism may not be as readily obvious khổng lồ people who are not targeted by them. One example is redlining, in which institutions like banks & insurance companies refuse or limit loans, mortgages, or insurance policies within specific geographic areas—typically neighborhoods where people of color live. Another example is racist profiling và mistreatment of people of color by police. Discussion of systemic racism often references statistics that highlight the prevalence of these practices. In the U.S., for example, Blachồng people are arrested and imprisoned at higher rates. They are also, on average, less likely to lớn be hired for jobs than Trắng candidates, despite the fact that there are laws prohibiting the consideration of race in the hiring process. Labor statistics also frequently show a wage gap between white people và nonwhite people—meaning people of color earn less for doing the same work. (The theory of intersectionality is the idea that certain groups are the subject of multiple forms of systemic oppression—women of color, for example, are regularly shown lớn earn lower wages than other people doing the same job.) The infant mortality rate for African Americans is often more than twice that of White Americans và is one of the inequities that is often attributed to lớn systemic racism.

Other forms of racism are more subtle & may even be unintentional. These often result from implicit bias and conscious or unconscious stereotypes. For example, when a trắng person tells a Blachồng person they’re articulate, it may be offered as a sincere compliment, but it often implies a sense of surprise that a Blaông xã person speaks so well. (Actions và statements like these are sometimes called microaggressions.)

Many theories about racism also focus on how it can be internalized by the people it targets. The term colorism, for example, is often used to lớn refer lớn the practice within a group, such as between or among Black people, of favoritism toward those with a lighter skin tone and mistreatment or exclusion of those with a darker skin tone.

What is antiracism?

Antiracist movements like the Civil Rights Movement, the movement lớn over apartheid, & those led by organizations like Black Lives Matter work to replace racism and injustice with justice. As these efforts continue, the many terms used in the discussion of racism are sure lớn evolve.