Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racism refers to violation of racial equality based on equal opportunities or based on equality of outcomes for different races or ethnicities, also called substantive equality.
African-American university student Vivian Malone entering the University of Alabama in the U.S. to register for classes as one of the first African-American students to attend the institution. Until 1963, the university was racially segregated and African-American students were not allowed to attend.
In 1899 Uncle Sam (a personification of the United States) balances his new possessions which are depicted as savage children. The figures are Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines and "Ladrones" (the Mariana Islands).
A rally against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1959
A pro–Hiester Clymer racist political campaign poster from the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election
Race (human categorization)
Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations. By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations. Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning. The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.
The "three great races" according to Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1885–90. The subtypes are: Mongoloid race, shown in yellow and orange tones Caucasoid race, in light and medium grayish spring green-cyan tones Negroid race, in brown tones Dravidians and Sinhalese, in olive green and their classification is described as uncertain The Mongoloid race sees the widest geographic distribution, including all of the Americas, North Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the entire inhabited
"Races humaines" according to Pierre Foncins La deuxième année de géographie of 1888. White race, shown in rose, Yellow (Mongoloid) race, shown in yellow, Negroid race, shown in brown, "Secondary races" (Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Australian aboriginals, Samoyedic peoples, Hungarians, Malayans and others) are shown in orange
Portrait "Redenção de Cam" (1895), showing a Brazilian family becoming "whiter" each generation