Racism
Racism has two broad meanings. First and most commonly, racism refers to the belief that there exist biologically defined races, or categories of human beings in which membership is determined by the possession of certain biological characteristics within the human species, and that some of these races are superior to others. This position is also known as psychological racism, because it describes an individual's beliefs. Some argue that racism in this sense also implies a certain degree of antagonism toward those of different races. According to this view, a racist does not merely believe that some races are superior to others, but positively disdains or at the least disrespects in important ways those races she or he believes to be inferior.
Second, racism can also refer to institutional racism, which is the notion that even if no individuals hold racist beliefs, the practices of existing institutions can have different impacts on different races, negatively affecting some and positively affecting others. Institutional racism does not necessarily imply that psychological racism does not exist, but rather focuses simply upon the practices of institutions as opposed to the beliefs and practices of individuals alone. It should be noted that much debate exists over what precisely constitutes institutional racism—for example, is it sufficient for an institution's practices to have a disparate impact on different races for those practices to qualify as instances of institutional racism, or do additional conditions have to be satisfied before we identify a practice as an example of institutional racism?
Regardless of how one precisely conceives of institutional racism, both forms of racism have been highly prevalent in modern Western, and indeed human, history (meaning the period from about the year 1500 to the present), and the theory, practice, and study of racism have undergone significant changes within that timeframe as well.
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