Definitions of Racism

 

There are many such definitions.  Here are a few:

 

 

1.                   Racism = Prejudice + Power

 

2.                   Racism is something someone does or says that offends someone else in connection with their colour, background, culture or religion

 

3.                   Racism is when a person is teased or called names because of their culture or the colour of their skin, their religion, the country they come from, their language and the way they talk, the food they eat, clothes they wear, or their background.

 

4.                   Racism is when people are stereotyped because of their colour or religion.

 

5.                   Racism is when a person is rejected or excluded from a group because of their colour or religion.

 

6.                   Racism is when people make fun of a person’s family.

 

7.                   Racism is when a person is treated unfairly because of their way of life.

 

8.                   Racism is when an organisation does not provide equal services to some people because of their background.

 

9.                   Racism is the systematic denial of rights, and exclusion from power, of one group, by another, based on prejudice about skin colour, ethnic origin or culture.

 

10.               Racism is based on the belief that certain “races” are superior to others.  It demeans all cultures by suggesting that there is an “ordinary” or “normal” way to be.  Its purpose is to cause all of us to be afraid of differences.

 

11.               Racism is the belief that “races” have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some “races” with an intrinsic superiority over others.

 

12.               Institutional Racism is the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.  It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people. (From Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (1999): Chaired by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny.)

 

Please note:

the word “race” has been put in between inverted commas on this page

because it has been scientifically discredited as a meaningful term.

See Rewind Project for further details.

 

 

The Institute of Race Relations has a page of definitions at: http://www.irr.org.uk/statistics/

 

 

 

For more academic definitions see also: http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/Halstead.html