WHAT IS RACISM? - Long dissertation

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WHAT IS RACISM? - Long dissertation

« on: May 05, 2012, 02:18:04 PM »

Racism ???
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Racism is generally understood as either belief that different racial groups are characterized by intrinsic characteristics
or abilities and that some such groups are therefore naturally superior to others or as practices that discriminate against
members of particular racial groups,[1] for example by perpetuating unequal access to resources between groups.[3]

The definition of racism is controversial both because there is little scholarly agreement about what the word "race" means,
and because there is also little agreement about what does and doesn't constitute discrimination.

Some definitions would have it that any assumption that a person's behavior would be influenced by their racial categorization is racist,
regardless of how seemingly benign such assumptions might be. Other definitions would only include conscious malignant forms of discrimination.

Among the questions about how to define racismare 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 institutionalized forms of discrimination such as the circulation of racial stereotypes through the media
and whether to include the socio-political dynamics of social stratification that sometimes have a racial component.

"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 conventions,
there is no distinction between the terms racial discrimination and ethnicity discrimination.[/u]

In politics, racism is commonly located on the far right due to the far right’s common association with nativism, racism, and xenophobia.

In history, racism has 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. It was also a driving force behind the transatlantic slave trade, and behind states based on
racial segregation such as the USA in the 19th and early twentieth centuries and South Africa under apartheid.

Practices and ideologies of racism are universally condemned by the United Nations in the Declaration of Human Rights.

Usage of the term and related terms
In the 19th century, many scientists subscribed to the simple belief that human populations are divided into separate races.
This was often used to justify the belief that some races were inferior to others, and that differential treatment was consequently justified.

Such theories are generally termed scientific racism. When the practice of treating certain groups preferentially or denying others rights
or benefits based on racial characteristics is institutionalized, it is termed “institutional racism”.

Nowadays, most biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists reject a simple taxonomy of races in favor of more specific and/or empirically verifiable criteria,
such as geography, ethnicity, or a history of endogamy.[13]

Those who subscribe to the proposition that there are inherent distinctions among people that can be ascribed to membership in a racial group
(and who may use this to justify differential treatment of such groups) tend to describe themselves using the term “racialism”
rather than “racism”, to avoid the negative connotations of the latter word. “Racialism” is assumed to be more
value-neutral terminology, and more appropriate for (scientifically) objective communication or analysis.

However, this distribution of meanings between the two terms used to be precisely inverse at the time they were coined:
The Oxford English Dictionary defined “racialism”as “belief in the superiority of a particular race” and gives a 1907 quote
as the first recorded use. The shortened term “racism” did not appear in the English language until the 1930s.

It was first defined by the OED as �By the end of World War II, racism had acquired the same supremacist connotations former associated with racialism:

racism now implied racial discrimination, racial supremacism and a harmful intent. The term “race hatred” [/b]had also been used by
sociologist Frederick Hertz in the late 1920s.)

Modeled on the term “racism”, a large number of pejorative -ism terms have been created to describe various types of prejudice:
sexism, ageism, ableism, speciesism, etc. Related concepts are antisemitism, chauvinism and homophobia
(which in turn has led to terms such as Islamophobia).

Definitions
Racism involves the belief in racial differences, which acts as a justification for non-equal treatment (which some regard as "discrimination")
of members of that race.

The term is commonly used negatively and is usually associated with race-based prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination, or oppression,
the term can also have varying and contested definitions. Racialism is a related term, sometimes intended to avoid these negative meanings.

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.

OTHERS define it as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences
produce an inherent superiority or inferiority of a particular racial group, and alternatively that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines racism as: "the belief that human races have distinctive characteristics which determine their respective cultures,
usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others."... (more)...

"Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy,
which needs outsiders as surplus people."
— Audrey Lorded


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