racism

plural racisms

1. uncountableusuallyThe belief that there are distinct human races with inherent differences which determine their abilities, and generally that some are superior and others inferior.

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

   1932 October 21, Sisley Huddleston, “Europe Painted in Fascist Colors”, in Christian Science Monitor, →ISSN, page 8

   2 more examples

   He lost his racism when he worked with a black man in Chicago. He lost his homophobia when he was befriended and looked after by his gay neighbors, a doctor and a nurse, in Little Rock.

   2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 45–46

   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.

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

2. uncountableusuallyThe 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.

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   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.

   1993 September 24, David T. Wellman, Portraits of White Racism, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 210

   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.

   2013, Tyler T. Schmidt, Desegregating Desire, →ISBN

3. uncountableusuallyPrejudice or discrimination based upon race or ethnicity; (countable) an action of such discrimination.

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

   2007, Joseph Godson Amamoo, Ghana: 50 years of independence

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   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.

   2016, Bernard Guerin, How to Rethink Human Behavior, →ISBN

   Of course, racism has a long and inglorious history in US politics. But it now has a very new iteration in the nerdy tech-savvy generation of the alt right. Racism 2.0. They don't speak of eugenics but rather of maintaining "human biodiversity". And they have a thing about IQ tests showing that white people are cleverer than others. […] For in cross-pollinating with the anonymity and viciousness of the internet, with porn and video games replacing Christianity as the common language in which conservatives talk to each other, with openly anti-democratic impulses being justified as rationality, the virus of racism is capable of spreading as never before.

   2016 August 25, Giles Fraser, “The alt right is old racism for the tech-savvy generation”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2023

4. colloquialcountableusuallyAn act that could be seen as racist, typically relatively harmless and/or unintentional.

   I might have just done a racism.

5. broadlycolloquialuncountableusuallyHatred or prejudice against a race (species) of beings, such as an alien race or the human race.