Racism

When racism, a belief, is applied in practice, it takes forms such as prejudice, discrimination, segregation or subordination. Racism can more narrowly refer to a system of oppression, such as institutional racism.

Historian Barbara Field argued in "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America" that racism is a "historical phenomenon" which does not explain racial ideology.[citation needed] She suggests that investigators should consider the term to be an American rhetorical device, with a historical explanation. She suggests that using race as a word with real meaning is a common error akin to superstition. Other scholars, however, say that races do exist, and the concept has significant meaning.

Organizations and institutions that put racism into action discriminate against, and marginalize, a class of people who share a common racial designation. The term racism is usually applied to the dominant group in a society, because it is that group that has the means to oppress others. The term can also apply to any individual or group, regardless of social status or dominance.

Racism can be both overt and covert. Individual racism sometimes consists of overt acts by individuals, which can result in violence or the destruction of property. Institutional racism is often more covert and subtle. It often appears within the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and frequently receives less public condemnation than the overt type.

W.E.B. DuBois argued that racialism is the belief that differences between the races exist, be they biological, social, psychological, or in the realm of the soul. He argued that racism is using this belief to promote the belief that one's particular race is superior to the others.

According to Jared Diamond in his work Guns, Germs and Steel, race is essentially a social and historical construction. It has no real basis in science, nor can it be used to explain why Europe gained the upper hand in world conquests.

On occasion, individualism has been denounced as a form of racism; for instance, in 2006, Seattle Public Schools issued a definition of racism on its Web site which stated that favoring individualism over collectivism, and having a "future time orientation", were examples of racism because they favored "white culture" over viewpoints indigenous to other groups. After much criticism, they removed these statements from their site.[4] On the other hand, a 1963 essay by Ayn Rand denounced racism as a crude form of collectivism.

Racial discrimination

There are differences in treatment of people on the basis of characteristics which may be classified as racial, including skin color and place of birth. This is a concept not unanimously agreed upon. While this usually refers to discrimination against minority racial groups in Western societies, it can also refer to the opposite situation, and in that case is often called reverse discrimination when it is due to affirmative action or other attempts to remedy past or current discrimination against minority racial groups. Many do not consider this racism, but simply a form of discrimination. However, reverse discrimination is relatively rare and far less common than the direction which discrimination is usually practiced, majority against minority.

Researchers at the University of Chicago (Marianne Bertrand) and Harvard University (Sendhil Mullainathan) found in a 2003 study that there was widespread discrimination in the workplace against job applicants whose names were merely perceived as "sounding black". These applicants were 50% less likely than candidates perceived as having "white-sounding names" to receive callbacks for interviews, no matter their level of previous experience. Results were stronger for higher quality rйsumйs. The researchers view these results as strong evidence of unconscious biases rooted in the United States' long history of discrimination. This is an example of structural racism, because it shows a widespread established belief system. Another example is apartheid in South Africa, and the system of Jim Crow laws in the United States of America. Another source is lending inequities of banks, and so-called redlining.

A number of international treaties have sought to end racial discrimination. The United Nations uses the definition of racial discrimination laid out in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and adopted in 1966:

...any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal