Page semi-protected


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



In sociology and psychology, some definitions only include consciously malignant forms of discrimination.[4][5] Some definitions of racism also include discriminatory behaviors and beliefs based on cultural, national, ethnic, caste, or religious stereotypes.[2][6] One view holds that racism is best understood as 'prejudice plus power' because without the support of political or economic power, prejudice would not be able to manifest as a pervasive cultural, institutional or social phenomenon.[7][8][9]

While race and ethnicity are considered to be separate phenomena in contemporary social science, the two terms have a long history of equivalence in popular usage and older social science literature. Racism and racial discrimination are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of whether these differences are described as racial. According to the United Nations convention, there is no distinction between the terms racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination, superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous, and there is no justification for racial discrimination, in theory or in practice, anywhere.[10]

In history, racism was a driving force behind conquest and the Transatlantic slave trade,[11] and behind states based on racial segregation such as the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and South Africa under apartheid.[12] Practices and ideologies of racism are universally condemned by the United Nations in the Declaration of Human Rights.[13] It has also been a major part of the political and ideological underpinning of genocides such as the Holocaust, but also in colonial contexts such as the rubber booms in South America and the Congo, and in the European conquest of the Americas and colonization of Africa, Asia and Australia.


In the 19th century, some scientists subscribed to the belief that human populations are divided into races,[14] that some races were inferior to others, and that differential treatment of races was consequently justified.[15][16][17] Such theories are generally termed scientific racism.


The Oxford English Dictionary defined "racialism" as "belief in the superiority of a particular race" and gave a 1907 quote as the first recorded use. The updated entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (2008) defines racialism simply as "An earlier term than racism, but now largely superseded by it," and cites it in a 1902 quote.[19] The revised Oxford English Dictionary cites the shortened term "racism" in a quote from the following year, 1903.[20][21][22] It was first defined by the OED as "[t]he theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race", which gives 1936 as the first recorded use. Additionally, the OED records racism as a synonym of racialism: "belief in the superiority of a particular race". By the end of World War II, racism had acquired the same supremacist connotations formerly associated with racialism: racism now implied racial discrimination, racial supremacism and a harmful intent. (The term "race hatred" had also been used by sociologist Frederick Hertz in the late 1920s.)

Modeled on the term "racism", a large number of -ism terms have been created to describe various types of prejudice: sexism, ageism, ableism, speciesism, etc. Related concepts are antisemitism, chauvinism, homophobia and Islamophobia.


As its etymology indicates, the first use of the word racism is relatively recent—i.e., the 1900s, most literally the 1930s. Linguistically, as the word is a general abstraction that does not in and of itself connote a great deal of positive or negative meaning without additional context (i.e., "racism" = noun of action/condition regarding "race"), its definition and semantics are not entirely settled. Nonetheless, the term is commonly used, often negatively as a pejorative (e.g., "racist"), and is associated with race-based prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination, or oppression.

Dictionaries define the word as follows:

  • The Oxford English Dictionary defines racism as the "belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races" and the expression of such prejudice,[23][24]


The UN does not define "racism"; however, it does define "racial discrimination": According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,


This definition does not make any difference between discrimination based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the two remains debatable among anthropologists.[27] Similarly, in British law the phrase racial group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin".[28]

In Norway, the word "race" has been removed from national laws concerning discrimination as the use of the phrase is considered problematic and unethical.[29][30] The Norwegian Anti-Discrimination Act bans discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, descent and skin color.[31]


Some sociologists have defined racism as a system of categorical privilege. In Portraits of White Racism, David Wellman has defined racism as "culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities".[32] Sociologists Noël A. Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern define racism as "... a highly organized system of 'race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/'race' supremacy. Sellers and Shelton (2003) found that a relationship between racial discrimination and emotional distress was moderated by racial ideology and public regard beliefs. That is, racial centrality appears to promote the degree of discrimination African American young adults perceive whereas racial ideology may buffer the detrimental emotional effects of that discrimination. Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry,".[33]

Some sociologists have also argued, with reference to the USA and elsewhere, that forms of racism have in many instances mutated from more blatant expressions hereof into more covert kinds (albeit that blatant forms of hatred and discrimination still endure). The "newer" (more hidden and less easily detectable) forms of racism—which can be considered as embedded in social processes and structures—are more difficult to explore as well as challenge. It has been suggested that, while in many countries overt and explicit racism has become increasingly taboo, even in those who display egalitarian explicit attitudes, an implicit or aversive racism is still maintained subconsciously.


Main article: Xenophobia

Dictionary definitions of xenophobia include: intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries (Oxford Dictionaries),[34] unreasonable fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign (Merriam-Webster)[35] The Dictionary of Psychology defines it as "a fear of strangers".[36]


Main article: Supremacism

Centuries of European colonialism of the Americas, Africa and Asia was often justified by white supremacist attitudes.[37] During the early 20th century, the phrase "The White Man's Burden" was widely used to justify imperialist policy as a noble enterprise.[38][39]

A rally against school integration in 1959.


Main article: Racial segregation



External video

Racial discrimination

Racial discrimination refers to the separation of people through a process of social division into categories not necessarily related to races for purposes of differential treatment. Racial segregation policies may formalize it, but it is also often exerted without being legalized. Researchers Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, at the University of Chicago and MIT found in a 2004 study that there was widespread discrimination in the workplace against job applicants whose names were merely perceived as "sounding black". These applicants were 50% less likely than candidates perceived as having "white-sounding names" to receive callbacks for interviews. Devah Pager, a sociologist at Princeton University, sent matched pairs of applicants to apply for jobs in Milwaukee and New York City, finding that black applicants received callbacks or job offers at half the rate of equally qualified whites.[41][42] In contrast, institutions and courts have upheld discrimination against whites when it is done to promote a diverse work or educational environment, even when it was shown to be to the detriment of qualified applicants.[43][44] The researchers view these results as strong evidence of unconscious biases rooted in the United States' long history of discrimination (e.g., Jim Crow laws, etc.)[45]


Students protesting against racial quotas in Brazil. The sign reads: "Want an opening (i.e. job opening)? Pass the entry exam!"








Main article: Symbolic racism

Some scholars argue that in the US earlier violent and aggressive forms of racism have evolved into a more subtle form of prejudice in the late 20th century. This new form of racism is sometimes referred to as "modern racism" and characterized by outwardly acting unprejudiced while inwardly maintaining prejudiced attitudes, and displaying subtle prejudiced behaviors such as actions informed by attributing qualities to others based on racial stereotypes, and evaluating the same behavior differently based on the race of the person being evaluated.[51] This view is based on studies of prejudice and discriminatory behavior, where some people will act ambivalently towards black people, with positive reactions in certain, more public contexts, but more negative views and expressions in more private contexts. This ambivalence may also be visible for example in hiring decisions where job candidates that are otherwise positively evaluated may be unconsciously disfavored by employers in the final decision because of their race.[52][53][54] Some scholars consider modern racism to be characterized by an explicit rejection of stereotypes, combined with resistance to changing structures of discrimination for reasons that are ostensibly non-racial, an ideology that considers opportunity at a purely individual basis denying the relevance of race in determining individual opportunities, and the exhibition of indirect forms of micro-aggression and/or avoidance towards people of other races.[55]



Cultural racism exists when there is a widespread acceptance of stereotypes concerning different ethnic or population groups.[56] Where racism can be characterised by the belief that one race is inherently superior to another, cultural racism can be characterised by the belief that one culture is inherently superior to another.[57]

Color blindness

Color blindness is held to be the disregard of racial characteristics in social interaction. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva argues that color blind racism arises from an "abstract liberalism, biologization of culture, naturalization of racial matters, and minimization of racism".[58] Color blind practices are "subtle, institutional, and apparently nonracial"[59] because race is explicitly ignored in decision making. If race is disregarded in predominately white populations, for example, whiteness becomes the normative standard, whereas people of color are othered, and the racism these individuals experience may be minimized or erased.[60][61] At an individual level, people with "color blind prejudice" reject racist ideology, but also reject systemic policies intended to fix institutional racism.[61]


Main article: Other


Othering plays a fundamental role in the history and continuation of racism. By objectifying a culture as something different, exotic or underdeveloped is to generalize that it is not like 'normal' society. Europe's colonial attitude towards the Orient exemplifies this as it was thought that the East was the opposite of the West; feminine where the West was masculine, weak where the West was strong and traditional where the West was progressive.[63] By making these generalizations and othering the East, Europe was simultaneously defining herself as the norm, further entrenching the gap.[64]

Much of the process of othering relies on imagined difference, or the expectation of difference. Spatial difference can be enough to conclude that "we" are "here" and the "others" are over "there".[63] Imagined differences serve to categorize people into groups and assign them characteristics that suit the imaginer's expectations.[65]

Declarations and international law against racial discrimination







A racist political campaign poster from the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election

Racism existed during the 19th century as "scientific racism", which attempted to provide a racial classification of humanity.[71] Johann Blumenbach in 1775, advocating polygenism, divided the world's population into five groups according to skin color (Caucasians, Mongols, etc.). The archetypical form of racism is, perhaps, found with the polygenist Christoph Meiners. He split mankind into two divisions which he labeled the "beautiful White race" and the "ugly Black race". In Meiners's book, The Outline of History of Mankind, Meiners claimed that a main characteristic of race is either beauty or ugliness. He viewed only the white race as beautiful. He considered ugly races as inferior, immoral and animal-like.








Racism has been a motivating factor in social discrimination, racial segregation, hate speech and violence (such as pogroms, genocides and ethnic cleansings). Despite the persistence of racial stereotypes in humor and epithets in some everyday language, racial discrimination is illegal in many countries.

Some claim that anti-racism is a political instrument of abuse. In a reversal of values, anti-racism is claimed to be propagated by despots in the service of obscurantism and the suppression of women. Philosopher Pascal Bruckner claimed that "[a]nti-racism in the UN has become the ideology of totalitarian regimes who use it in their own interests."[78]

Ethnic nationalism

Further information: Ethnic nationalism and Romantic nationalism







Ethnic conflicts

Further information: Ethnicity


Picture showing Armenians killed during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.




Academic variants


Owen 'Alik Shahadah comments on this racism by stating: "Historically Africans are made to sway like leaves on the wind, impervious and indifferent to any form of civilization, a people absent from scientific discovery, philosophy or the higher arts. We are left to believe that almost nothing can come out of Africa, other than raw material."[84]






Scientific variants

Main article: Scientific racism
Further information: Unilineal evolution






Heredity and eugenics

Further information: Eugenics





Polygenism and racial typologies

Further information: Polygenism and Typology (anthropology)




Human zoos



Evolutionary theories about the origins of racism

See also: Ethnocentrism
Sociological model of ethnic and racial conflict.





Research on influencing factors

Research has examined factors influencing tolerance, in particular ethnic tolerance, prejudice, and trust. Authoritarian personality has been associated with prejudice and intolerance. Education has an inverse association which is stronger in established democracies than in emerging. Different groups are viewed differently and including illegal groups in tolerance surveys may reduce tolerance levels in all countries except the United States. Increased contact with other groups increase tolerance. Increased perception of threat, including from the home land of an ethnic minority, reduces tolerance. Competition over jobs reduces tolerance and occupational segregation reduced ethnic conflicts and ethnic prejudice in studies in the United States and Yugoslavia. Tolerance is increased by democratic stability and a federal system. Increased ethnic heterogeneity increases tolerance up to a point but beyond this tolerance decreases. The negative effect of increased ethnic heterogeneity is stronger when looking at larger areas such as nations compared to smaller areas such as neighborhoods. This may be due to the contact effect being relatively more important at local levels while the threat effect becomes more important in larger areas.[105] One study, published by Carl Bell, revealed that "racist attitudes may be indicative of a narcissistic personality disorder or of a regression to primitive narcissistic functioning secondary to environmental forces."[106]


In Antiquity




Bernard Lewis has cited the Greek philosopher Aristotle who, in his discussion of slavery, stated that while Greeks are free by nature, 'barbarians' (non-Greeks) are slaves by nature, in that it is in their nature to be more willing to submit to despotic government.[109] Though Aristotle does not specify any particular races, he argues that people from outside Greece are more prone to the burden of slavery than those from Greece.[110] Such proto-racism and ethnocentrism must be looked at within context, because a modern understanding of racism based on hereditary inferiority (modern racism based in: eugenics and scientific racism) was not yet developed and it is unclear whether Aristotle believed the natural inferiority of Barbarians was caused by environment and climate (like many of his contemporaries) or by birth.[111] While Aristotle makes remarks about the most natural slaves being those with strong bodies and slave souls (unfit for rule, unintelligent) which would seem to imply a physical basis for discrimination, he also explicitly states that the right kind of souls and bodies don't always go together, implying that the greatest determinate for inferiority and natural slaves versus natural masters is the soul, not the body.[112] This proto-racism is seen as an important precursor to modern racism by classicist Benjamin Isaac.



Middle Ages and Renaissance

Further information: Limpieza de sangre

In the Middle East and North Africa region, racist opinions were expressed within the works of some of its historians and geographers[114] including Al-Muqaddasi, Al-Jahiz, Al-Masudi, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Ibn Qutaybah.[114] In the 14th century CE, the Tunisian scholar Ibn Khaldun wrote:


Though the Qur'an expresses no racial prejudice, such prejudices later developed among Arabs for a variety of reasons:[109] their extensive conquests and slave trade; the influence of Aristotelian ideas regarding slavery, which some Muslim philosophers directed towards Zanj (Bantu[116]) and Turkic peoples;[109] and the influence of Judeo-Christian ideas regarding divisions among humankind.[117] In response to such views, the Afro-Arab author Al-Jahiz, himself having a Zanj grandfather, wrote a book entitled Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites,[118] and explained why the Zanj were black in terms of environmental determinism in the "On the Zanj" chapter of The Essays.[119] By the 14th century, a significant number of slaves came from sub-Saharan Africa, leading to the likes of Egyptian historian Al-Abshibi (1388–1446) writing: "It is said that when the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he steals."[120] According to J. Philippe Rushton, Arab relations with blacks whom the Muslims had dealt as slave traders for over 1,000 years could be summed up as follows:

13th-century slave market in Yemen. Yemen officially abolished slavery in 1962.[121]

It should be noted that ethnic prejudice among some elite Arabs was not limited to darker-skinned black people, but was also directed towards fairer-skinned "ruddy people" (including Persians, Turks, Caucasians and Europeans), while Arabs referred to themselves as "swarthy people".[122]

However, the Umayyad Caliphate invaded Hispania and founded the civilization of Al-Andalus, where an era of religious tolerance and a Golden age of Jewish culture lasted for six centuries.[123] It was followed by a violent Reconquista under the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand V and Isabella I. The Catholic Spaniards then formulated the Cleanliness of blood doctrine. It was during this time in history that the Western concept of aristocratic "blue blood" emerged in a highly racialized and implicitly white supremacist context, as author Robert Lacey explains:


Following the expulsion of most Sephardic Jews from the Iberian peninsula, the remaining Jews and Muslims were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism, becoming "New Christians" which were despised and discriminated by the "Old Christians". An Inquisition was carried out by members of the Dominican Order in order to weed out converts that still practiced Judaism and Islam in secret. The system and ideology of the limpieza de sangre ostracized Christian converts from society, regardless of their actual degree of sincerity in their faith.


At the end of the Renaissance, the Valladolid debate (1550–1551) concerning the treatment of natives of the "New World" opposed the Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de Las Casas to another Dominican philosopher Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. The latter argued that "Indians" were natural slaves because they had no souls, and were therefore beneath humanity. Thus, reducing them to slavery or serfdom was in accordance with Catholic theology and natural law. To the contrary, Bartolomé de Las Casas argued that the Amerindians were free men in the natural order and deserved the same treatment as others, according to Catholic theology. It was one of the many controversies concerning racism, slavery and Eurocentrism that would arise in the following centuries.




19th century



An illustration from Harper's Weekly shows an alleged similarity between "Irish Iberian" and "Negro" features in contrast to the "higher" "Anglo-Teutonic."

However, during the 19th century, West European colonial powers were involved in the suppression of the Arab slave trade in Africa,[128] as well as in suppression of the slave trade in West Africa.[129] Some Europeans during the time period objected to injustices that occurred in some colonies and lobbied on behalf of aboriginal peoples. Thus, when the Hottentot Venus was displayed in England in the beginning of the 19th century, the African Association publicly opposed itself to the exhibition. The same year that Kipling published his poem, Joseph Conrad published Heart of Darkness (1899), a clear criticism of the Congo Free State owned by Leopold II of Belgium.


The term Hamite was applied to different populations within Africa, mainly comprising Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis, Berbers, and the ancient Egyptians. Hamites were regarded as Caucasoid peoples who probably originated in either Arabia or Asia on the basis of their cultural, physical and linguistic similarities with the peoples of those areas.[131][132][133] Europeans considered Hamites to be more civilized than Black Africans, and more akin to themselves and Semitic peoples.[134] In the first two-thirds of the 20th century, the Hamitic race was, in fact, considered one of the branches of the Caucasian race, along with the Indo-Europeans, Semites, and the Mediterranean race.






20th century

Drinking fountain from mid-20th century with African-American drinking

During World War II and the period of the Nazi regime in Europe, all of the Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, mixed race people, and Slavic people—mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and Russians—along with other ethnic groups whose racial origin were non-European (with some small exceptions i.e. the "honorary Aryans", the "Indische Legion", or the "Free Arabian Legion"), according to the Nazi ideology were classified as "subhumans" (Untermenschen) and were viewed as the opposite to the superior Aryan "master race" (Herrenvolk). The Nazi philosophy was that the Germans were part of a "master race", and therefore had the right to expand their territory and enslave or kill members of other races deemed inferior.[139] Approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In the longer term, the Nazis planned to exterminate some 30–45 million Slavs (mostly Poles and Serbs), however some of them were seen as good material for slaves.[140] Eventually over 2.5 million ethnic Poles, 0.7 million Gypsies, and 0.5 million ethnic Serbs died during the World War II, and were among the main non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.[141]

Before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Nazis prepared a special settlement plan named Generalplan Ost ("Master Plan East") which foresaw the eventual expulsion of more than 50 million non-Germanized Slavic peoples of Central Europe and Eastern Europe through forced migration and partial extermination of those Slavs by starvation. Also, according to the Nazi plans for Eastern Europe, some of the Balts were to be expelled beyond the Ural Mountains and into Siberia. In their place, Germans would settle in an extended "living space" (Lebensraum) of the 1000-Year Empire (Tausendjähriges Reich). Herbert Backe was one of the orchestrators of the Hunger Plan—the idea to starve tens of millions of Slavs in order to ensure steady food supplies for the German people and troops.[142]

Heinrich Himmler speech to about 100 SS Group Leaders in Posen, German-occupied Poland, 1943:


Serious race riots in Durban between Indians and Zulus erupted in 1949.[144] Ne Win's rise to power in Burma in 1962 and his relentless persecution of "resident aliens" led to an exodus of some 300,000 Burmese Indians.[145] They migrated to escape racial discrimination and wholesale nationalisation of private enterprise a few years later in 1964.[146] The Zanzibar Revolution of January 12, 1964 put an end to the local Arab dynasty.[147] Thousands of Arabs and Indians in Zanzibar were massacred in riots, and thousands more were detained or fled the island.[148] On 4 August 1972, Idi Amin, President of Uganda, ethnically cleansed Uganda's Asians giving them 90 days to leave the country.[149]




During the Congo Civil War (1998–2003), Pygmies were hunted down like game animals and eaten. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman" and some say their flesh can confer magical powers. UN human rights activists reported in 2003 that rebels had carried out acts of cannibalism. Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, has asked the UN Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.[152] A report released by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemns Botswana's treatment of the 'Bushmen' as racist.[153] In 2008, the tribunal of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of having a racist attitude towards white people.[154][155]

The mass demonstrations and riots against African students in Nanjing, China, lasted from December 1988 to January 1989.[156] Bar owners in central Beijing had been forced by the police "not to serve black people or Mongolians" during the 2008 Summer Olympics, as the police associates these ethnic groups with illegal prostitution and drug trafficking.[157] In November 2009, British newspaper The Guardian reported that Lou Jing, of mixed Chinese and African parentage, had emerged as the most famous talent show contestant in China and has become the subject of intense debate because of her skin color.[158] Her attention in the media opened serious debates about racism in China and racial prejudice.[159]

In Asia and Latin America, light skin is seen as more attractive.[160] Thus, skin whitening cosmetic products are popular in East Asia[161] and India.[6] Some activists, most prominently at the UN conference at Durban, have asserted that the caste system in India is a form of racial discrimination,[162][163] although many prominent[164] scholars debunk this viewpoint as "scientifically nonsense",[165] since there are no consistent racial differences between the different castes in India. These activists utilize genetic studies that claim to corroborate their view,[166] although other more detailed studies have challenged these assertions as overtly simplistic[167][168] Currently, there are approximately 165 million Dalits (formerly known as "untouchables") in India.[169]

Some 70,000 black African Mauritanians were expelled from Mauritania in the late 1980s.[170] In the Sudan, black African captives in the civil war were often enslaved, and female prisoners were often used sexually.[171] The Darfur conflict has been described by some as a racial matter.[172] In October 2006, Niger announced that it would deport the Arabs living in the Diffa region of eastern Niger to Chad.[173] This population numbered about 150,000.[174] While the Government collected Arabs in preparation for the deportation, two girls died, reportedly after fleeing Government forces, and three women suffered miscarriages.[175]


The Jakarta riots of May 1998 targeted many Chinese Indonesians.[176] The anti-Chinese legislation was in the Indonesian constitution until 1998. Resentment against Chinese workers has led to violent confrontations in Africa[177][178][179] and Oceania.[180][181] Anti-Chinese rioting, involving tens of thousands of people,[182] broke out in Papua New Guinea in May 2009.[183] Indo-Fijians suffered violent attacks after the Fiji coup of 2000.[184] Non-indigenous citizens of Fiji are subject to discrimination.[185][186] Racial divisions also exist in Guyana,[187] Malaysia,[188] Trinidad and Tobago,[189] Madagascar,[190] or South Africa.[191]

Israel, as well as elements within Israeli society has been accused of discriminatory behavior towards Ethiopian Jews and other non-white Jews.[192] Accusations of racism range from birth control policies,[193][194] education, and housing discrimination.[195]

One form of racism in the United States was enforced racial segregation which existed until the 1960s when it was outlawed. It has been argued that this separation of races continues to exist today de facto. The causes of segregation vary from lack of access to loans and resources to discrimination in realty.[196][197]

As state-sponsored activity




Inter-minority variants

Main article: Interminority racism

Prejudiced thinking among and between minority groups does occur.

In Europe

In Britain, tensions between minority groups can be just as strong as those between minorities and the majority population.[201] In Birmingham, there have been long-term divisions between the Black and South Asian communities, which were illustrated in the Handsworth riots and in the smaller 2005 Birmingham riots.[202] In Dewsbury, a Yorkshire town with a relatively high Muslim population, there have been tensions and minor civil disturbances between Kurds and South Asians.[203][204]

In France, home to Europe's largest population of Muslims (about 6 million) as well as the continent's largest community of Jews (about 600,000), anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and racist language has been increasing over the last several years. Jewish leaders perceive the Muslim population as intensifying antisemitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab or African heritage, but also this antisemitism is perceived as also growing among Caribbean islanders from former colonies.[205][206]

In North America

For example, conflicts between African Americans and Korean Americans (notably in the Los Angeles riots of 1992), by blacks towards Jews (such as the riots in Crown Heights in 1991), between new immigrant groups (such as Latinos), or towards whites.[207][208][209][210]

African-Americans in Dallas boycotting a Korean owned Kwik Stop in a mostly black neighborhood, March 2012.[211]

There has been a long-running racial tension between African Americans and Mexican Americans.[212][213][214] There have been several significant riots in California prisons in which Mexican American inmates and African Americans have specifically targeted each other based on racial reasons.[214][215] There have been reports of racially motivated attacks against African Americans who have moved into neighborhoods occupied mostly by Mexican Americans, and vice versa.[216][217]

In the late 1920s in California, there was animosity between the Filipinos and the Mexicans and between European Americans and Filipino Americans since they competed for the same jobs.[218] Recently, there has also been an increase in racial violence between African immigrants and Blacks who have already lived in the country for generations.[219]

Over 50 members of the Azusa 13 gang, associated with the Mexican Mafia, were indicted in 2011 for harassing and intimidating African Americans.[220]

Unconscious Racism

Based on Forbes Leadership website, understanding race includes understanding how race operates in our minds out of awareness. Widely reported examples include significant racial bias in job applications, restaurant service, to court cases.[221] According to social psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt, a professor in Stanford University, race can influence our visual processing and how our minds work when we are exposed to faces of different colors subliminally. As she says, "blackness is so associated with crime you're ready to pick out these crime objects." These exposures influence our mind and can cause unconscious racism in our behavior towards other people or even objects. Racism goes beyond prejudicial discrimination and bigotry. It arises from stereotypes and fears of which we are not aware.[222]


Main article: Anti-racism

Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, it promotes an egalitarian society in which people are not discriminated against in race. Movements such as the African-American Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Apartheid Movement were examples of anti-racist movements. Nonviolent resistance is sometimes an element of anti-racial movements, although this was not always the case. Hate crime laws, affirmative action, and bans on racist speech are also examples of government policy designed to suppress racism.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

UNESCO marks March 21 as the yearly International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in memory of the events that occurred on March 21, 1960 in Sharpeville, South Africa, where police killed student demonstrators peacefully protesting against the apartheid regime.

See also

References & notes

  1. ^ Racism Oxford Dictionaries
  2. ^ a b "Racism" in R. Schaefer. 2008 Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society. SAGE. p. 1113
  4. ^ Reilly, Kevin; Kaufman, Stephen; Bodino, Angela (2003). Racism : a global reader. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-0-7656-1060-7. 
  5. ^ Eberhardt, Jennifer Lynn; Fiske, Susan T (1998). Confronting Racism: The Problem and the Response. SAGE. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-0-7619-0368-0. 
  6. ^ a b "In India, Skin-Whitening Creams Reflect Old Biases". NPR: National Public Radio. November 12, 2005
  7. ^ Operario, Don and Susan T. Fiske (1998). Racism equals power plus prejudice: A social psychological equation for racial oppression. Pp. 33-53 in Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt and Susan T Fiske (eds), Confronting racism: The problem and the response. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc.
  8. ^ ""Only White People can be Racist: What does Power have to do with Prejudice?" - Sawrikar - Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal". 
  9. ^ Hoyt, Carlos. "The Pedagogy of the Meaning of Racism: Reconciling a Discordant Discourse" (PDF). 
  13. ^ UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III), available at: [1] [accessed 18 July 2012]
  14. ^ Frideres, J.S. (May 2010). "Racism". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-07-23. Racism was developed and popularized by scientists in the 19th century, as they were regarded as purveyors of truth. 
  15. ^ "racism". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2009-03-16. 
  18. ^ Bamshad, Michael; Steve E. Olson (December 2003). "Does Race Exist?". Scientific American. If races are defined as genetically discrete groups, no. But researchers can use some genetic information to group individuals into clusters with medical relevance. 
  23. ^ "racism, n.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. March 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  24. ^ marissa mills (2007-08-31). "Minorities, Race, and Genomics". Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  25. ^ "racism". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  26. ^ UN International Convention on the Elimination of All of Racial Discrimination, New York 7 March 1966
  27. ^ Metraux, A. (1950). "United nations Economic and Security Council Statement by Experts on Problems of Race". American Anthropologist 53 (1): 142–145. 
  30. ^ Rase: Et ubrukelig ord Aftenposten. Retrieved 10 December 2013 (Norwegian)
  33. ^ Cazenave, Noël A.; Darlene Alvarez (1999). "Defending the White Race:White Male Faculty Opposition to a White Racism Course" Race and Society 2. pp. 25–50. 
  34. ^, 2012
  35. ^ "Xenophobia - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". 
  36. ^ Dictionary of Psychology, Chapman, Dell Publishing, 1975 fifth printing 1979.
  45. ^ Bertrand, M.; Mullainathan, S. (2004). "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination". American Economic Review 94 (4): 991–1013. doi:10.1257/0002828042002561.  edit
  46. ^ Richard W. Race, Critics have replied that Carmichael's definition glosses over individual responsibility and leaves no room to question whether the members of a group are failing or not meeting standards due not to discrimination but due to their own dysfunctional behaviour and bad choices. Analysing ethnic education policy-making in England and Wales PDF (47.2 KB), Sheffield Online Papers in Social Research, University of Sheffield, p.12. Retrieved 20 June 2006. Archived September 23, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  47. ^ "Ethics of Reparations". "Ron Karenga". 
  52. ^ McConahay, J. B. (1983). "Modern Racism and Modern Discrimination The Effects of Race, Racial Attitudes, and Context on Simulated Hiring Decisions". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 9 (4): 551–558. doi:10.1177/0146167283094004. 
  53. ^ Brief, A. P.; Dietz, J.; Cohen, R. R.; Pugh, S. D.; Vaslow, J. B. (2000). "Just doing business: Modern racism and obedience to authority as explanations for employment discrimination". Organizational behavior and human decision processes 81 (1): 72–97. doi:10.1006/obhd.1999.2867. 
  56. ^ "An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie". 
  57. ^ "Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography". 
  69. ^ Text of the Convention, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1966 Archived July 26, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  70. ^ [2] Archived July 24, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  71. ^ Pierre-André Taguieff, La force du préjugé, 1987 (French)
  72. ^ "Race Studies in Denmark" (PDF). Geografisk Tidsskrift (in Danish) (Norwegian Geographical Society) 19. 1907. Retrieved 2013-11-14. 
  78. ^ Pascal Bruckner (16 June 2008). "Boycot Durban II". 
  80. ^ John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government, 1861
  81. ^ a b Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
  83. ^ Richter, Facing East from Indian Country, p. 208
  84. ^ The Removal of Agency from Africa by Owen 'Alik Shahadah Archived 1 February 2010 at WebCite
  85. ^ Eric Morton. "Race nad Racism in the works of David Hume". Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. 
  89. ^ The Hour of Decision, pp. 227–228
  93. ^ UNESCO, The Race Question, 1950
  96. ^ On A Neglected Aspect Of Western Racism, Kurt Jonassohn, December 2000
  101. ^ Robert Kurzban , John Tooby, and Leda Cosmides (December 18, 2001). "Can race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 (26): 15387–15392. Bibcode:2001PNAS...9815387K. doi:10.1073/pnas.251541498. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 65039. PMID 11742078. Retrieved 2008-06-11. . The authors provide a summary and other comments at "(untitled)". 
  102. ^ New Scientist. Issue 2595, 17 March 2007.
  104. ^ Hammond, R. A.; Axelrod, R. (2006). "The Evolution of Ethnocentrism". Journal of Conflict Resolution 50 (6): 926–936. doi:10.1177/0022002706293470.  edit
  105. ^ "Determinants of political tolerance : a literature review". 2 February 2011. 
  106. ^ Bell, Carl C. (July 1980). "Racism: A Symptom of the Narcissistic Personality". Journal of the National Medical Association 72 (7): 661–665. PMC 2552506. PMID 2552506. 
  107. ^ Sanders, Edith (1969). "The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective". Journal African History 10 (4): 521–532. doi:10.1017/S0021853700009683. 
  112. ^ "Aristotle on Slavery". Retrieved 2013-11-14. 
  113. ^
  122. ^ Bernard Lewis (1992). Race and slavery in the Middle East: an historical enquiry. Oxford University Press. pp. 18–9. ISBN 978-0-19-505326-5. 
  123. ^ Sephardim. Jewish Virtual Library. Last accessed 27 December 2011.
  125. ^ Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended (1976–77)
  127. ^ Clark, Jeanne Ellen. Engaging the Apartheid Analogy in Israel/Palestine. Willamette University. p.5
  129. ^ "Chasing Freedom Exhibition: the Royal Navy and the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade". 2006-11-21. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  135. ^ "Background on conflict in Liberia". 2003-07-30. Retrieved 2011-01-26. 
  137. ^ Andrew Malone (2008-07-18). "How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  140. ^ William J. Duiker (2009-08-31). Contemporary World History. Cengage Learning. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-495-57271-8. 
  141. ^ Dan Stone (2010-08-01). Histories of the Holocaust. Oxford University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-19-956680-8. 
  142. ^ J. Adam Tooze (2006). The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. Viking Press. p. 476. ISBN 978-0-670-03826-8. 
  146. ^ Burma: Asians v. Asians. TIME. 17 July 1964.
  149. ^ 1972: Asians given 90 days to leave Uganda. BBC.
  158. ^ Stephen Vines (2009-11-01). "China's black pop idol exposes her nation's racism". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-11-03. 
  162. ^ "The Caste System". NPR: National Public Radio.
  168. ^ Aryan-Dravidian divide a myth: Study, Times of India.
  172. ^ Racism at root of Sudan's Darfur crisis. July 14, 2004.
  184. ^ Future bleak for Fiji's Indians. BBC News. July, 2000.
  185. ^ "Dealing with the dictator". The Australian. April 16, 2009. Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2014. 
  189. ^ "Trouble in paradise". BBC News. May 1, 2002
  192. ^
  193. ^ "Ethiopian birth control?". The Jerusalem Post - 
  201. ^ "The new colour of British racism". The Guardian. October 30, 2005.
  202. ^ "Rumours of a riot". The Guardian. November 29, 2005.
  203. ^ [3] Archived May 10, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  204. ^ "UKPollingreport – Constituency Guide " Dewsbury". 2010-10-26. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 
  205. ^ Nickerson, Colin (2006-03-13). "Anti-Semitism seen rising among France's Muslims". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  206. ^ More and More French Jews Emigrating to Israel, Der Spiegel, March 22, 2012
  207. ^ "Racial dispute in Texas". The Korea Herald. January 30, 2012. 
  208. ^ Susy Buchanan. "Tensions Mounting Between Blacks and Latinos Nationwide". Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  209. ^ "Hispanic Influx Causes Tensions with Blacks". Daily Press.
  210. ^ Racial Tensions Grow Violent At Philly High School". NPR. December 16, 2009
  212. ^ "Race relations | Where black and brown collide". The Economist. 2007-08-02. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  213. ^ Scott Conroy (2006-10-14). "Riot Breaks Out At Calif. High School, Melee Involving 500 People Erupts At Southern California School". CBS News. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  214. ^ a b "California Prisons on Alert After Weekend Violence". NPR. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  215. ^ "Jurist – Paper Chase: Race riot put down at California state prison". 2006-12-31. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  216. ^ Paul Harris (2007-03-18). "Gang mayhem grips LA". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  217. ^ Ruben Navarrette Jr. Special to CNN (2007-10-03). "Commentary: Black-brown friction waste of energy". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  218. ^ "Filipino Migrant Workers in California". Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  219. ^ Dyer, Ervin (2012-03-16). "African immigrants face bias from blacks". Retrieved 2012-05-07. 
  221. ^ Todd Essig (21 September 2014). "Unconscious Racial Bias: From Ferguson To The NBA To You". Forbes. 
  222. ^ "Drugs, Crime, and Justice". 

Further reading

  • Gibson, Rich (2004) Against Racism and Nationalism
  • Smedley, Audrey; Smedley, Brian D. (2005). "Race as Biology if Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem is Real". American Psychologist 60: 16–26. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.60.1.16. 
  • UNESCO, The Race Question, 1950
  • Winant, Howard The New Politics of Race (2004)

External links