Table of Contents
Definition of Racism
(noun) Any attitude, belief, or behavior used to explain and justify prejudice and discrimination against racial or ethnic minorities, on the basis of perceived inferiority.
Examples of Racism
Racism Pronunciation
Syllabification: rac·ism
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /rAY-siz-uhm/
- British English – /rAY-si-zuhm/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈreɪˌsɪz(ə)m/
- British English – /ˈreɪsɪz(ə)m/
Usage Notes
- Plural: racisms
- A type of ecological fallacy and prejudice.
- Also called:
- race hatred
- race prejudice
- racialism
- racial discrimination
- A (noun) racist or (noun) racialist advocates racism.
Related Videos
Additional Information
- Word origin of “racism” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Back, Les, and John Solomos, eds. 2009. Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
- Blumer, Herbert. 1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” The Pacific Sociological Review 1(1):3–7. doi:10.2307/1388607.
- Ezekiel, Raphael S. 1995. The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen. New York: Viking.
- Davis, David Brion. 1966. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Marks, Jonathan. 1995. Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
- Rattansi, Ali. 2007. Racism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Shipman, Pat. 1994. The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences and the Use and Abuse of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Snowden, Frank M. 1983. Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Related Terms
- affirmative action
- bigotry
- discrimination
- hate crime
- norm
- power
- prejudice
- scapegoat theory
- white privilege
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Cite the Definition of Racism
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “racism.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 24, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/racism/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
racism. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/racism/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “racism.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/racism/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“racism.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/racism/>.