Developing Oral Communication Skills – ANF1101L
Dr Granville Pillar
Moral Issue
What is Racism?
A race is a group of people that come from a common background. That group is generally
determined based on skin colour. Commonly, but not always, people are categorized into
one of five races: White, Black, Latino or Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous or Native. Racism
then, is the discrimination or prejudice of a person or group based on the racial group she or
they belong to. It's not that simple, however.
The term racism is actually used in many ways. Some refer to racism as white supremacism,
the belief that the Caucasian race is superior to all other races. Others define racism as
discrimination against a particular race’s culture, beliefs or traditions. Racism might refer to
the idea that a single race is somehow purer than other races, or that one race genetically
exhibits dominance over others. Some believe that race can be a way to determine
behaviour and performance.
Racism can be used to refer to prejudice based on race against one person or a group of
people; it can be expressed either overtly or subtly. Overt racism is perhaps the easiest to
identify. It is fairly simple to see that the actions of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, are racist.
They openly proclaim superiority of the white race and inferiority of non-white races.
Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-racism.htm