WHAT IS RACISM ???

When Googling “racism” the first two results that appear are the Wikipedia definition followed by the Dictionary.com definition.

  

Wikipedia

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination.

World English Dictionary

1. The belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

But do you notice something odd?

The World English Dictionary would define you as racist if you believed that certain traits are hereditary.

The Wikipedia definition seems to concede that different traits ARE inherited but only when you discriminate based on this fact does it become racist.

Based on The World English Dictionary is the Wikipedia definition of racism racist?

The next Google link is RacismNoWay.com.au which gives a long winded essay but also provides this useful definition………..

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1998)

Racism is an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups, that devalues and renders inferior those groups, that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society.

And the next link………..

http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism

Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others.

Again, something odd about these definitions.

Say for instance someone says “East Africans make great runners”

According to HREOC this would not be racist since it is not a myth and does not devalue East African people.

According to Global Issues.org this would be racist since it attributes characteristics and abilities to a race and implies that they are superior in this aspect.

Or we could go even simpler, “East Africans are dark skinned”. According to Global Issues.org and Dictonary.com this would be a racist statement since it implies that the characteristic of dark skin is the result of heritage. If you expanded the statement to “East Africans are dark skinned and they are less likely to get sunburnt when compared to white Australians” now you have also implied a superior trait and you fit the dictionary definition of racism.

The definitions of sexism seem to be far better thought out in both Wikipedia and the World Dictionary and specifies that it is only discrimination when the person believes that certain characteristics effect UNRELATED areas. 

A sexist statement "Woman cant play sport because they have breasts"

A non sexist statement "Women may need to take different considerations to men when playing sport such as using a sport bra"

So back to "racism", what can be concluded from the various definitions?

There seems to be two main definitions of racism.

1. A hatred or discrimination against a certain race or races
2. Acknowledging that race exists

For the purpose of clarity and common sense, Anti Racists Against Multiculturalism will choose the former definition, “A hatred or discrimination against a certain race or races”.