

A recent proposal is that it derives from the Arabic ra's, which means "head, beginning, origin" or the Hebrew rosh, which has a similar meaning. Linguists generally agree that it came to the English language from Middle French, but there is no such agreement on how it generally came into Latin-based languages. The origin of the root word "race" is not clear.

The term "racist" may be an adjective or a noun, the latter describing a person who holds those beliefs. The term racism is a noun describing the state of being racist, i.e., subscribing to the belief that the human population can or should be classified into races with differential abilities and dispositions, which in turn may motivate a political ideology in which rights and privileges are differentially distributed based on racial categories. In the 19th century, many scientists subscribed to the belief that the human population can be divided into races. Indigenous peoples have been-and are-often subject to racist attitudes.Īn early use of the word racism by Richard Henry Pratt in 1902: "Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism." Racism has played a role in genocides such as the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, as well as colonial projects including the European colonization of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the population transfer in the Soviet Union including deportations of indigenous minorities. It was also a major force behind racial segregation in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and of apartheid in South Africa 19th and 20th-century racism in Western culture is particularly well documented and constitutes a reference point in studies and discourses about racism. Racism is a relatively modern concept, arising in the European age of imperialism, the subsequent growth of capitalism, and especially the Atlantic slave trade, of which it was a major driving force. The convention also declared that there is no justification for racial discrimination, anywhere, in theory or in practice. It further concludes that superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous. According to the United Nations's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, there is no distinction between the terms "racial" and "ethnic" discrimination. 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. "Ethnicity" is often used in a sense close to one traditionally attributed to "race", the division of human groups based on qualities assumed to be essential or innate to the group (e.g. While the concepts of race and ethnicity are considered to be separate in contemporary social science, the two terms have a long history of equivalence in popular usage and older social science literature. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. apartheid) that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems (e.g. Racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity.
