# racism

Pronunciation: US say "RAY-si-zuhm" /ˈɹeɪsɪzm̩/; UK say "RAY-siz-uhm" /ˈɹeɪsɪz(ə)m/

## Noun

1. Prejudice or discrimination directed at people on the basis of their race or ethnicity; a single act of such discrimination.
   - Simple: Unfair treatment of people, or hostile feelings toward them, because of their race or ethnic background.
   - _Racism in the housing market kept many families out of certain neighborhoods for decades._
   - _She filed a formal complaint after experiencing racism from a coworker._
2. The belief that humanity divides into distinct races whose inherited differences determine their abilities, with some races held to be superior and others inferior.
   - Simple: The idea that humans split into separate races, and that some races are naturally better than others.
   - _Nineteenth-century racism dressed up its claims of inferiority in the language of science._
   - _Their pamphlets spread a crude racism that ranked peoples by supposed inborn worth._
3. The policies, practices, or systems, such as governmental or political ones, that promote the belief in superior and inferior races or the dominance of one or more races over others.
   - Simple: Rules, customs, or systems that favor one race and hold others down.
   - _Apartheid was a system of racism enforced through law for nearly fifty years._
   - _Reformers traced the racism embedded in lending rules that denied loans to whole neighborhoods._

## Origin

Borrowed from French "racisme," equivalent to "race" plus the suffix "-ism."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/racism (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).