What is racism?

Before you talk about whether racism does or does not exist, you need to know what it is. Now, I often see racism defined as "hating people because of their skin color." In fact, hatred is not essential to racism.

Here is the meaning of racism, courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary:

quote:

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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. Hence: prejudice and antagonism towards people of other races, esp. those felt to be a threat to one's cultural or racial integrity or economic well-being; the expression of such prejudice in words or actions. Also occas. in extended use, with reference to people of other nationalities.

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So that's what racism is. Now we need to know: "how does racism exist"?

Racism, like any ideology, can exist in various forms. We can understand these forms along two axes.

First, the axis of theory and practice. That is, racism can both be understood as a "belief system" and "system of practices." Second, the axis of implicitness and explicitness.

These two axes are separable only on an ideal or abstract level. In reality, they freely intermix and can contradict each other. As in many ideological systems (e.g. religion, "being a gentleman," and so on), people can hold a specific belief but act quite differently from that belief.

Do many people hold explicitly or implicitly racist beliefs? Do many people treat others in explicitly or implicitly racist ways?

It seems to me that once you pose the question this way, it's very hard to deny that racism is dead.

Just something to think about.