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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 or ethnicity over another. [1] [2] [3] It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different ethnic ...
The word "race", interpreted to mean an identifiable group of people who share a common descent, was introduced into English in the 16th century from the Old French rasse (1512), from Italian razza: the Oxford English Dictionary cites the earliest example around the mid-16th century and defines its early meaning as a "group of people belonging to the same family and descended from a common ...
For example, the Population Registration Act, 1950 was used to enforce the apartheid system in South Africa, and Brazil has set up boards to assign a racial category to people for the purpose of enforcing racial quotas. [7] Because of genetic variation, skin color, and other features of physical appearance can vary considerably even among siblings.
In the context of racism in the United States, racism against African Americans dates back to the colonial era, and it continues to be a persistent issue in American society in the 21st century. From the arrival of the first Africans in early colonial times until after the American Civil War , most African Americans were enslaved .
Racism has been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions (including violence) against racial or ethnic groups throughout the history of the United States. Since the early colonial era , White Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially-sanctioned privileges and rights that have been denied to members of various ethnic ...
Major figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks [14] were involved in the fight against the race-based discrimination of the Civil Rights Movement. . Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat in 1955 sparked the Montgomery bus boycott—a large movement in Montgomery, Alabama, that was an integral period at the beginning of the Civil Rights Moveme
Latinos have grown up hearing someone be called "negrita" or "negrito," but the Spanish term, a diminutive of Black, stirs debate over whether it's a term of endearment or a legacy of a racist past.
The term scientific racism was popularized by Stephen Jay Gould who used it in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man to describe the historical role of science in propagating the ideal of White racial superiority. [16] Today, the term is generally used pejoratively when applied to more modern theories, such as those in The Bell Curve (1994).