Racism consists of both
prejudice and
discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. It often takes the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems that consider different
races to be ranked as inherently
superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.
[1][2][3]
Among the questions about how to define racism are the question of whether to include forms of discrimination that are unintentional, such as making assumptions about preferences or abilities of others based on
racial stereotypes, whether to include
symbolic or
institutionalized forms of discrimination such as the circulation of
ethnic stereotypes through the media, and whether to include the socio-political dynamics of
social stratification that sometimes have a racial component.
In sociology and psychology, some definitions only include consciously malignant forms of discrimination.
[4][5] However, some consider any assumption that a person's behavior is tied to their racial categorization to be inherently racist, regardless of whether the action is intentionally harmful or pejorative, because
stereotyping necessarily subordinates individual identity to group identity.[
citation needed]
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, and superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous, and that there is no justification for racial discrimination, in theory or in practice, anywhere.
[10]
