Racism

Mathias Bös

Racism is a set of beliefs, practices, and social structures that treats groups of human beings socially defined by unalterable, often physical, attributes (races) as inherently unequal. Racism is a form of subordination and exclusion. It is a part of the power structure of institutions and social relations. Racism is sustained by coercion and consent, and it is expressed in prejudice, discrimination, oppression, violence, or, in some extreme cases, genocide. This broader perspective on racism, epitomized in the work of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963), is dominant in political science, sociology, and social anthropology. In social and political psychology, the term is used more narrowly to describe a set of beliefs or attitudes. William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) took such an approach, identifying racism as a specific form of ethnocentrism related to the perception of ingroup/outgroup relations. Racism is a set of prejudices that enables and legitimates exploitation and scapegoating ...

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