Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bella Souza
Abstract
This paper will explore the multiple definitions of racism and how minority groups tend to define
racism differently than majority groups. Typically, minority groups such as African Americans
believe that they are not capable of being racist because they don’t hold institutional power but
many majority groups, such as White Americans, believe that not all majority groups are racist
and determining whether someone is racist or not is determined by their actions. This
presentation will explore why people have such different definitions of what racism, as well as
Racism is among one of the most controversial topics in the United States. Like most
other controversial things, with every new law or bill put into place regarding racism there is
guaranteed to be disagreement. All the disagreement occurs because not every individual has the
same definition of what racism is. In fact, almost every person has their own definition of what
racism means to them. The biggest discrepancy among those definitions is how minority groups
define racism and how majority groups define racism. Of course, not all members of the minority
or majority group would agree with these definitions but most typically do. Most members of the
majority group would say that any individual is capable of being racist and in order to be
considered racist one must say or do something discriminatory towards a race different than their
own simply because they believe their own race is superior. Members of the minority group
would most likely agree with this, but they would also say that racism is prejudice combined
with power, and since the majority group has the power they are the only ones who can be racist.
This major discrepancy among the definitions is why there still are problems in the United States
regarding racism.
Before defining what racism is and how different groups define racism it is important to
understand the difference between a minority group and a majority group. Essentially, a minority
group is a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their
lives than members of a dominant or majority group. The majority group is the group that has the
largest population in society and holds significant power and privilege. It is important to
understand the difference between majority and minority groups because that’s where the major
When one looks racism up in the dictionary thousands of definitions come up, they all
revolve around the idea of being prejudice but whether someone or something is prejudice is a
matter of opinion. A CNN article talking about how whites and blacks see racism differently
stated, “How you see race in the United States can depend a lot on your own background.”
(Struyk, 2017). In the U.S. African Americans experience racial discrimination much more often
than White Americans do which also influences their views on it. In the past few years there
have been various cases of unarmed black men shot and killed by police officers but there have
been very few, if any, cases of white unarmed males who were shot and killed. In each of these
cases the victims were shot because the cops genuinely thought they were doing something bad.
Many people argue that that is racism but the cops didn’t shoot any of the people simply based
off of the fact that they were black, the cops shot them based off of the assumption they were
armed which is a result of racial stereotypes in the U.S. Events like these greatly contribute to the
reason why whites and blacks define racism differently, it’s not done on purpose but cases like
this explain why blacks and whites come from different backgrounds.
Another reason why minority groups tend to define racism differently than majority
groups is because there are multiple types of racism. There are two main types of racism with
subcategories. The two main groups are systemic racism, racism based in historical inequities
that has ongoing wide-reaching effects, and individual racism, belief that one’s own race is
superior to others. Within systemic racism there is institutional racism and structural racism.
Institutional racism occurs within institutions or systems of power and is the unfair policies or
practices within the system. (Oppression Monitor, 2014). Examples of this would be racial
profiling within the law enforcement system. Structural racism, another type of systemic racism,
is racial bias among institutions and across society that involves many other factors such as
DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT: RACISM 5
history and culture. (Oppression Monitor, 2014). All the cases of police officers shooting
unarmed black men because they assumed they were committing a crime would be considered
structural racism. When it comes to individual racism there are two main types, internalized
racism and interpersonal racism. Internalized racism is people’s private beliefs and biases about
race. (Oppression Monitor, 2014). Although this type of racism can’t be seen it is still considered
racism because the individual believes their race is superior to all others. Interpersonal racism
occurs between individuals when individuals interact with others and their racial beliefs affect
their interactions. (Oppression Monitor, 2014). An example of this would be hate crimes or
The way in which minority groups and majority groups define racism is very different
from one another. A member of a minority group would most likely say that racism is prejudice
combined with power, therefore in order to be racist one must have power. Currently, white
Americans are backed by institutional power in the United States in terms of wealth and
educational attainment. (Mohdin, 2017). Since white Americans hold this power many minority
groups argue that white people are the only ones capable of being racist. Although prejudice plus
power is a way of being racist it only takes systemic racism into account without considering
individual racism. When a member of the majority group is asked to define racism they would
most likely say that anyone is capable of being racist and in order to be racist one must say or do
something prejudice to someone of a different race. This definition of racism focuses much more
on individual racism than systemic racism because most members of the majority group believe
Clearly, there is a lot of disagreement on what counts as racism and what the true
definition of racism is. Everyone knows what racism is but minority groups tend to define it
DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT: RACISM 6
much differently than majority groups which is a direct result of the background they come from.
Members of minority groups experience racism much more than members of the majority group
which is why they might have a different perception of it. Everyone who defines racism does
define it correctly but there is such a big disagreement because most people only define one type
References
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