Racism: Difference between revisions

Racism is a phenomenon in which people mistreat, discriminate against, dislike, or even hate, have disdain for, or regard as inferior, other people based on what is regarded to be their race. The word racism is almost always used pejoratively, with accusations of racism being common but with few describing themselves as racist. The term racialism is sometimes favored as a less negative term by those who hold certain beliefs about race that they believe to be scientifically justified.

Racism may have originated as an extension of feelings of loyalty to family. People may see a race as an extended family, and have loyalties to their own as they would to their own family, tribe, clan, or nation. This often translates to a distrust and dislike of "out-groups". Members of other groups have seemingly repugnant customs and speak unfamiliar languages, which can lead to distrust and even contempt. In addition, there have been many historical ethnic conflicts between various groups, which cause members of each group to regard the other with resentment, disdain, and even hatred, often lasting centuries.

In more recent times there have been heavily disputed scientific studies of race which indicate that certain inherited traits, such as skin color, are correlated to other characteristics of the individuals bearing those traits, such as intelligence. Thus, a racist or racialist might refer to these alleged correlations to justify their sentiments, beliefs, or behaviors. One might hold that most (or all) members of a given race share undesirable mental or moral qualities, seeing an entire ethnic or racial group as being inferior to members of one's own group. This is a very controversial subject; see race and intelligence for a discussion of the IQ controversy. Also see race for a discussion of the concept of race, which itself is often brought into question.

It is not clear to what extent these scientific ideas about race, which are fairly recent (originating in the 19th century) and thus had no role in older instances of racism, influence racism today.

Racism may be expressed individually and consciously, through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or socially and unconsciously, through institutions that promote inequalities among "races". Although some speakers attempt to express a semantic distinction by using the word racism rather than racialism (or vice versa), many treat the terms as synonymous (see below).

Racism could be divided in three major subcategories: individual racism, structural racism, and ideological racism. Some categories of racism are:

• Racial prejudice is pre-formed personal opinions about individuals on the basis of their race. (E.g. John thinks that Mary will have bad attribute X solely because Mary is a member of race Y.)
• Racial discrimination is differences in treatment of people on the basis of characteristics which may be classified as racial, including skin color, cultural heritage, and religion. (e.g. Mary refuses to hire John because he is of race Y.)
• Institutional racism or structural racial discrimination -- racial discrimination by governments, corporations, or other large organizations. (e.g. Mary cannot get a job, despite her qualifications, because she is of race Y.)
• Cultural racial discrimination occurs when the assumption of inferiority of one or more races is built into the culturally maintained image of itself held by members of one culture. (e.g. Members of group X are taught to believe that they are members of a superior race, and, consequently, members of other races are inferior.

• Historical economic or social disparity is alleged to be a form of discrimination which is caused by past racism, affecting the present generation through deficits in the formal education and other kinds of preparation in the parents' generation, and, through primarily unconscious racist attitudes and actions on members of the general population. (E.g. A member of Race Y, Mary, has her opportunities adversely affected (directly and/or indirectly) by the mistreatment of her ancestors of race Y.) However, many people dispute the idea that this can be called racism; many hold that this view infantilizes members of a given ethnic group (e.g. blacks or Hispanics) and treats an entire race as victims unable to improve themselves through their own efforts. In this opposing view, it is racist to believe that a group is being held back by such concerns.

Racism is usually directed against a minority population, but may also be directed against a majority population. Examples of the former include the enslavement of black Africans and repression of their descendants in the United States. The existence of the latter is often controversial, but agreed upon examples include racial apartheid in South Africa, wherein whites (a minority) discriminated against blacks (a majority); this form of racism also occurred during the former colonial rule of such countries as Vietnam (by France) and India ( by the United Kingdom).

Reverse racism is a controversial concept; it refers to a form of racism against a dominant group. In the United States, many people, mostly conservatives, criticize policies such as affirmative action as an example of reverse racism. They say that these policies are race-based discrimination. Supporters of affirmative action argue that affirmative action policies counteract a systemic and cultural racism by providing a balancing force, and that affirmative action does not qualify as racist because the policies are enacted by politicians (who are mostly part of the white majority in the United States) and directed towards their own race.

Some Americans believe that reverse racism exists in the United States, but that it is cultural racism, and not primarily systemic. For example, some African-Americans discriminate against white people -- this too can be called reverse racism.

In addition, some white people believe that political correctness has led to a denigration of the white race, through perceived special attention paid to minority races. For example, they consider the existence of Black History Month (February) but not a White History Month, Hispanic History Month or Asian History Month to be de facto racism directed at the majority and non-black minorities.

Racism is and has been official policy in many countries. In the 1970s, Uganda expelled tens of thousands of ethnic Indians. Malaysia currently enforces discriminatory laws limiting access to university education for Chinese students who are citizens by birth of Malaysia. Russia launched anti-Semitic pogroms against Jews in 1905 and after. In some towns Israel has limited land ownership to Jews. Many Arab nations forbid Jews from emigration or becoming citizens; in these nations it is often forbidden to sell land to a Jewish person.

In the United States, racial profiling of minorities by law enforcement officials is a controversial subject. Some people consider this to be a form of racism.

Supporters of racial profiling believe it to be a necessary tool for law enforcement because members of certain minority groups are statistically much more likely to commit certain types of crimes. For example, most terrorists have been young Arab males, while female Christian Europeans have only participated in terrorist actions on extremely rare occasions. Thus it is both logical and useful to have security officers at airports take special note of young Arab male fliers, and not to examine all fliers equally. Critics of this policy hold that any form of special treatment is racist by definition, and thus immoral and illegal. Some claim that profiling young Arab male fliers at airports will only lead to increased recruitment of older, non-Arab, and female terrorists. (Terrorism experts generally disagree with claim.) Many critics of racial profiling claim that it is an unconstitutional practice because it amounts to questioning individuals on the basis of what crimes they might commit or could possibly commit, instead of what crimes they have actually committed. See the article on racial profiling for more information on this dispute.

In 19th century Europe and America, many people legitimized racist beliefs and practices through theories about biological differences among races. Today, most scientists reject these theories as pseudoscience. The ideas, claims and positions are alleged to be based on biased research, gross generalizations, and poorly controlled or totally uncontrolled studies.

Today scientists who study the concept of race have a very different understanding of what a "race" is; all human races are held to have vastly more in common, and very little that is different between them. The differences between races do exist on many levels (skin color, facial cartilage distribution, genetic diseases, predisposition to certain traits) but the difference between races is now understood to be vastly smaller than was imagined by some in the 19th century. Some even say that different human races (as then defined) do not exist.

In colonial America, what few African slaves there were served alongside poor whites in indentured servitude; a term of service meant freedom and a land grant afterward. A number of black Africans became landowners this way, before colonial slavery became based on racial lines. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the Governor and the system of exploitation he represented: exploitation of poorer colonists by the increasingly wealthy landowners. However, Bacon died, probably of dysentery, and the revolt lost steam.

The central cause of concern to landowners was the unity of Bacon's populist movement. It raised the question to the landownders of how to divide the population politically in ways that would keep the poorer colonists divided enough to rule. To the Governor, the most threatening, and unexpected, aspect of Bacon's rebellion was its multi-racial aspect. So from that time on, the wealthy landowners determined that only Africans would be used as slaves - and white colonists were promised whatever benefits would have gone to Africans had they continued to be indentured servants. This change began the infamously long period of the American slave society, in which slaves were primarily used for agricultural labor, notably in the production of cotton and tobacco. The social rift along color lines soon became engrained in every aspect of colonial American culture.

In the 19th and 20th century many Germans, Austrians came to accept a form of racism towards Jewish people, racial anti-Semitism. Many people in these countries believe erroneously that the Jewish people were a distinct race, and further, that this race was inherently morally inferior to the putative "Aryan races". (Scientists today reject the existence of any Aryan race as fictitious, and as a recent ideological construct.) Jews were commonly referred to as inherently greedly, selfish, and "parasitical". They were often referred to as viruses or parasites. Over time these ideas lead many people in these nations to accept the Nazi teachings that the Jewish "parasites" must be exterminated in a literal sense; this led to the Holocaust.

• Nazism
• General Government an attempt to introduce racial segregation in the occupied by Germany Poland. There were several separated races (in order of privilages):
  • Reichdeutsche
  • Volksdeutsche
  • Ukrainians
  • Goralenvolk
  • Poles
  • Russian POV
  • Jews

Apartheid

There were race riots across the United Kingdom in 1919: South Shields, Glasgow, London's East End, Liverpool, Cardiff, Barry, and Newport.

Many Arabs accuse Israelis of harboring racist beliefs towards them. One fringe Jewish extremist group, Kach, does preach racism towards Arabs. Many Jews accuse Palestinian Arabs of harboring anti-Semitic beliefs towards them. Many schools and mosques run by the Palestinian Authority quote from anti-Semitic sources such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf; in many madrassas and Palestinian mosques Jews are described as descedants of monkeys and pigs.

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia.

• Afrocentrism - (not always considered racist); the belief that black African cultures were historically more powerful and influential than is widely believed
• Anti-Semitism - usually, racism directed towards Jews, though Arabs are sometimes included as well.
• Apartheid - a system of racism, now abolished, that once existed in South Africa; some refer to current Israeli policies towards Palestinians as apartheid as well.
• Black supremacy - the belief that those of African descent are the superior race.
• Colorism - racism among blacks, based on skin-tone, exemplified in terms such as "high yellow" (sometimes written and/or pronounced as "high yaller") as well as the brown paper bag test. There seems to be an implicit calculus behind this belief that makes the goodness of the individual inversely related to the darkness of his/her skin.
• Eurocentrism - the sometimes unconscious practice of historically and culturally focusing on white Europeans, to the exclusion of study, or even mention of, significant achievements of other groups of people.
• Islamophobia - the manifestations of hatred and hostility towards Muslims and Arab people in general.
• Manifest Destiny - a historical form of the racist belief that asserted that white Americans had the right and duty to colonize the west and "civilize" the Native American inhabitants.
• Nazism - a historical form of political organization (called national socialism) coupled with extreme racism, that directed its energies against the Roma (the so-called Gypsies), Jews, Poles, Russians and Slavs, among other groups. Some adherents of Nazi ideology continue to exist today.
• Racial segregation - (not always considered necessarily racist) the belief that the so-called races should be kept separate, either geographically or culturally.
• Racial purity - the belief that the various so-called races should be kept "pure" by not permitting interbreeding
• White supremacy - the belief that those whose skin color is what is commonly described as being "white" (but strangely not the similarly colored Ainu people of Japan or albino members of non-European stock) are the superior race, or 'master race'.
• Attitudes of suburb and gated community developers, who are often accused of pandering to racist views by emphasizing "crime risk" in more racially diverse downtowns, especially in North America.
• Zionism in its modern political form, including "settlement" of areas established by UN resolutions to belong to Arabs.

• Aryan Nation - a group of militant white supremacists
• Front National - a political party in France whose leader proposed deporting 3 million non-Europeans from France in his 1995 presidential election bid
• Kahane Chai - an Israeli organization that preaches Jewish supremacy, named after Meir Kahane
• Ku Klux Klan - a group of American white supremacists, founded after the Civil War

• Nation of Islam - a group of African-Americans sometimes considered currently or historically racist
• Sangh Parivar - family of anti-muslim organizations in India, includes:
  • Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - organisation of which a member assassinated Mahatma Gandhi
  • BJP - political party, as of 2003, in national government in India and in state government in Gujarat, allegedly co-responsible with the VHP for the 2002 Gujarat pogrom
  • Shiv Sena - political party, government of Maharashtra during 1990s
  • VHP, Bajrang Dal
• White Australia Movement - a white supremacist organization in Australia

See also: affirmative action, Afrocentrism, anti-racism, anti-Semitism, apartheid, ascribed characteristics, The Bell Curve, black supremacy, chauvinism, Civil rights movement, collectivism, Criminal Blackman Myth, discrimination, essentialism, ethnic stereotype, ethnocentrism, Eurocentrism, genocide, hate crime, homophobia, Islamophobia, Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan, master race, Miscegenation, Naziism, nigger, race, race riot, racial segregation, racialism, Racism/racial and ethnic slurs, sexism, skinhead, social stereotype, White Australia policy, white supremacy, white trash, wog

List of ethnic slurs

• What is Race?