16 Facts About Racism

Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.

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.

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.

Racism can be said to describe a condition in society in which a dominant racial group benefits from the oppression of others, whether that group wants such benefits or not.

Racism is a complex concept that can involve each of those; but it cannot be equated with, nor is it synonymous, with these other terms.

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Racism defined the term as "the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin".

Racism existed during the 19th century as "scientific racism", which attempted to provide a racial classification of humanity.

Racism considered ugly races to be inferior, immoral and animal-like.

Racism has played a role in genocides such as the Armenian genocide, and the Holocaust, and colonial projects like the European colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Racism rests on two basic assumptions: that a correlation exists between physical characteristics and moral qualities; that mankind is divisible into superior and inferior stocks.

Racism, thus defined, is a modern conception, for prior to the XVIth century there was virtually nothing in the life and thought of the West that can be described as racist.

Racism conceived of France as being divided between various nations—the unified nation-state is an anachronism here—which themselves formed different "races".

Racism spread throughout the New World in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Racism recognised racial differences as varieties of humanity, and emphasised the close similarities between people of all races in mental faculties, tastes, dispositions and habits, while still contrasting the culture of the "lowest savages" with European civilization.

Racism applied statistics to study human differences and the alleged "inheritance of intelligence", foreshadowing future uses of "intelligence testing" by the anthropometry school.

Racism has been associated with lower childhood IQ in an analysis of 15,000 people in the UK.