racism

English

Etymology

1928, after French racisme (1902). See race, -ism for more.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹeɪsɪzm̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

racism (usually uncountable, plural racisms)

1. Belief that there are distinct human races with inherent differences which determine their abilities, and generally that some are superior and others inferior.
   • 1932 October 21, Sisley Huddleston, “Europe Painted in Fascist Colors”, in Christian Science Monitor‎^[1], →ISSN, page 8:

     It is altogether inaccurate to suggest that Europe is being indoctrinated with Fascism or Racism.

   • 2011, Jane H. Hill, The Everyday Language of White Racism (→ISBN), page 1987:

     But other kinds of talk and text that are not visible, so called covert racist discourse, may be just as important in reproducing the culturally shared ideas that underpin racism.

2. The policies, practices, or systems (e.g. government or political) promoting this belief or promoting the dominance of one or more races over others.

   Martin Luther King spoke out against racism.

   • 1993 September 24, David T. Wellman, Portraits of White Racism, Second edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 210:

     In part, the answer is that racism extends considerably beyond prejudiced beliefs. The essential feature of racism is not hostility or misperception, but rather the defense of a system from which advantage is derived on the basis of race. The manner in which the defense is articulated – either with hostility or subtlety – is not nearly as important as the fact that it insures the continuation of a privileged relationship. Thus it is necessary to broaden the definition of racism beyond prejudice to include sentiments that in their consequence, if not in their intent, support the racial status quo.

   • 2013, Tyler T. Schmidt, Desegregating Desire (→ISBN):

     In “Crazy for This Democracy” (1945), Hurston critiques the US government's racism at home and abroad, including its silence on the anticolonial movements in Africa.

3. Prejudice or discrimination based upon race or ethnicity; (countable) an action of such discrimination.
   • 2007, Joseph Godson Amamoo, Ghana: 50 years of independence:

     For, if racism against non-whites is morally wrong and unjustifiable, then how can racism against whites be morally right and justifiable?

   • 2016, Bernard Guerin, How to Rethink Human Behavior (→ISBN):

     This was partly true, but the biggest thing stopping him was that he had tried going to a college in Adelaide before and grew tired of the little racisms and discrimination that he got there.

Usage notes

• Usage has begun to shift in the 21st century to particularly focus on structural power dynamics that underlie racist institutions and policies rather than personal prejudices.
• Some speakers use the term racism loosely to refer to prejudice or discrimination based not upon race but upon other factors; this is nonstandard:

examples

• • 2002, Tom Carter-Smith, Sex – an Apology for Love (NORDISC Music & Text, →ISBN), page 99,

    The reason for this was the general prejudice (read: racism) against gays among “straight” people; the government simply didn't want the public to be appalled by posters and TV adds^[sic] with “queers”.

  This lax use is more common when the [non-racial] factor correlates to race in a given setting:

  • 2017, Jennifer E. Cheng, Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament (→ISBN):

    If there is no legally defined way to oppose racism towards Muslims, people must find other ways to talk about it, identify it and contest it. [...] How do the politicians construct racism against Muslims without referring to the category of 'race'?

• The term reverse racism has been used to denote personal racial prejudice by a group that is or has been oppressed/disempowered, against a more powerful group. Some argue that this distinction does not need to be made and advocate that this be called, simply, racism, while others argue that the term racism should not be used at all in such cases, as racism is distinguished from racial prejudice by being supported by institutions and social structures.
• For many speakers, the term racism implies conscious belief or behavior, but this is not always the case.

Synonyms

• (racial discrimination): See Thesaurus:racism

Hypernyms

• (racial discrimination): See Thesaurus:prejudice

Coordinate terms

• (racial discrimination): See Thesaurus:prejudice

Derived terms

• antiracism
• anti-racism
• institutional racism
• non-racism
• nonracism
• reverse racism
• scientific racism
• systemic racism

 

Related terms

• antiracist
• anti-racist
• racist
• racistic

 

Translations

racial prejudice or discrimination

• Afrikaans: rassisme
• Albanian: racizëm (sq) m
• Arabic: عِرْقِيَّة f (ʕirqiyya), عُنْصُرِيَّة f (ʕunṣuriyya)
• Armenian: ռասիզմ (hy) (ṙasizm)
• Asturian: racismu m
• Azerbaijani: irqçilik, rasizm
• Belarusian: расі́зм m (rasízm)
• Bengali: বর্ণবাদ (bornobad)
• Breton: gouennelouriezh f
• Bulgarian: раси́зъм m (rasízǎm)
• Burmese: လူမျိုးရေးဝါဒ (lu-myui:re:wada.)
• Catalan: racisme (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 種族主義／种族主义 (zh) (zhǒngzúzhǔyì), 种族主义 (zh) (zhǒngzúzhǔyì), 種族歧視／种族歧视 (zh) (zhǒngzú qíshì), 种族歧视 (zh) (zhǒngzúqíshì)

• Cornish: hilgasieth f
• Czech: rasismus (cs) m, rasizmus (cs) m
• Danish: racisme (da) c
• Dutch: racisme (nl) n
• Esperanto: rasismo
• Estonian: rassism
• Finnish: rasismi (fi)
• French: racisme (fr) m
• Galician: racismo m
• Georgian: რასიზმი (rasizmi)
• German: Rassismus (de) m
• Greek: φυλετισμός (el) m (fyletismós), ρατσισμός (el) m (ratsismós)
• Gujarati: જાતિવાદ (jātivād)
• Hawaiian: paihaʻakei ʻili
• Hebrew: גִּזְעָנוּת (he) f (gizanút)
• Hindi: जातिवाद m (jātivād), नस्लभेद m (naslabhed)
• Hungarian: rasszizmus (hu)
• Icelandic: kynþáttafordómar m pl, rasismi m, kynþáttahyggja f, kynþáttastefna f, kynþáttarembingur m, kynþáttahatur n, kynþáttahroki m
• Ido: rasismo (io)
• Indonesian: rasisme (id)
• Irish: ciníochas m
• Italian: razzismo (it) m
• Japanese: 人種差別 (じんしゅさべつ, jinshusabetsu), レイシズム (reishizumu)
• Kannada: ವರ್ಣಭೇದ (kn) (varṇabhēda)
• Kazakh: нәсілшілдік (kk) (näsılşıldık)
• Khmer: ពូជនិយម (puuc niyum)
• Korean: 인종차별 (ko) (injongchabyeol), also spelled: 인종 차별(人種差別) (injong chabyeol), 인종 차별주의 (injong chabyeoljuui)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: nîjadparêzî

• Kyrgyz: расизм (ky) (rasizm)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: rasisms m
• Lithuanian: rasizmas (lt) m
• Macedonian: раси́зам m (rasízam)
• Malay: rasisme
• Malayalam: വർണ്ണവിവേചനം (vaṟṇṇavivēcanaṁ)
• Maori: whakatakētanga
• Marathi: वंशविद्वेष (vauśvidveṣ)
• Ngazidja Comorian: uɓanguzi wa range class 11 (ubanguzi wa range), uɓanguzi class 11 (ubanguzi)
• Norman: racisme m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rasisme (no) m

  Nynorsk: rasisme m

• Occitan: racisme (oc) m
• Pashto: نژاد پالنه f (nežādpalǝ́na)
• Persian: نژادپرستی (fa) (nežâd-parasti), راسیسم (râsism)
• Polish: rasizm (pl) m
• Portuguese: racismo (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਜਾਤੀਵਾਦ m (jātīvād)
• Romanian: rasism (ro) n
• Russian: раси́зм (ru) m (rasízm)
• Scottish Gaelic: gràin-cinnidh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: расизам m

  Roman: rasizam (sh) m

• Sinhalese: ජාතිවාදය (jātiwādaya)
• Slovak: rasizmus m
• Slovene: rasizem (sl) m
• Spanish: racismo (es) m
• Swahili: ubaguzi wa rangi
• Swedish: rasism (sv) c
• Tajik: нажодпарастӣ (nažodparastī), расизм (rasizm)
• Tamil: இனவாதம் (iṉavātam)
• Tatar: расизм (rasizm)
• Telugu: జాత్యహంకారము (jātyahaṅkāramu)
• Thai: คตินิยมเชื้อชาติ (ká-dtì-ní-yom-chʉ́ʉa-châat)
• Turkish: ırkçılık (tr)
• Turkmen: jynsparazlyk (tk), rasizm
• Ukrainian: раси́зм m (rasýzm)
• Urdu: نسل پرستی f (nasl parastī)
• Uyghur: ئىرقىي كەمسىتىش (irqiy kemsitish), ئىرقچىلىق (irqchiliq)
• Uzbek: irqchilik (uz), rasizm
• Vietnamese: chủ nghĩa phân biệt chủng tộc (vi)
• Welsh: hiliaeth f
• Yiddish: ראַסיזם m (rasizm)

See also

• affirmative action
• Afrocentrism
• Anti-Defamation League
• ADL
• antisemitism
• anti-semitism
• apartheid
• black is beautiful
• black supremacy
• Civil Rights Movement
• cultural anthropology
• cultural relativism
• ethnic majority
• ethnic minority
• ethnocentrism
• ethnonationalism
• eugenics
• Eurocentrism
• hate crime
• historical particularism
• intolerance
• Ku Klux Klan
• KKK
• monogenism
• multiculturalism
• nationalism
• otherness
• political correctness
• political minority
• polygenism
• racial discrimination
• racialism
• racial profiling
• Rainbow Coalition
• social Darwinism
• supremacism
• tolerance
• unilineal evolution
• white supremacy
• xenophobia
• xenophobism

 

Further reading

• racism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “racism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Ramics, cimars