History tells us that hatred between humans for ideological, physical or religious reasons has always existed. The reasons for this discrimination have never been rational, but for whatever reason, racism (or the different types of racism that exist) have taken root in society.
The racism that denotes some facts or words is not always given explicitly , that is why it is important to know these types of discrimination and know how to stop it in time.
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What is racism?
To understand what racism is, we must first define what we mean by race. Technically, the only race to which we belong is the human race , although anthropology makes a classification according to physical traits. In this sense, we find the Caucasian, Ethiopian or Mongolian race, but their differences are merely physical.
The basic definition of racism would be the following: ideology that defends the superiority of one race over another and that, therefore, feels the need to isolate or eliminate it. However, if we have said that the only race is the human (homo sapiens) this definition would not make sense. So why does racism still exist?
The answer is that there are a series of prejudices and historical events that make us humans continue to hate each other.
The 10 types of racism
Below we review the different types of discrimination that exist, although many of them are strictly related.
1. Biological Racism
This type of racism is the most common, and is that discrimination occurs in relation to biological differences between individuals. Therefore, it defends that there are races superior to others in various aspects, such as intellectual capacity or physical condition .
2. Racism due to skin color
It is a purely physical and very superficial racism, based on the color of the skin. In general, this irrational hatred overlaps with other types of racism such as biological or sexual.
Within this discrimination we find colorism, which occurs between individuals with the same skin color . For example, there are African communities that expel those people who are “too black”.
3. Xenophobia
People often identify this term as a synonym for “racism”, but the truth is that xenophobia has to do with a particular region or country . In this sense, it is based on the superiority of a group originating from one place over foreigners who arrive from another region or country.
4. Sexual racism
Type of racism that discriminates against a gender or a sexual orientation . The most common discrimination is that of the masculine gender over the feminine, although it can occur in reverse. Biological or skin color racism often goes hand in hand with sexual racism.
5. Social racism
This is the rejection of a group for belonging to a social stratum. People with fewer economic resources are the most common victims of this discrimination. This social racism causes the class difference to widen.
6. Cultural racism
Defends that one race or group is superior to another for historical-cultural reasons. It does not try to demonstrate the superiority of one culture over another, butestablishes a relationship between a group and its cultural capacity , such as thinking that the black population is incapable of developing good literature.
7. Religious
racism This racism establishes a hierarchy between people of different religions. It should be noted that this has given rise to some of the most important conflicts that shake the world today. It is one of the most common and oldest types of racism, unfortunately.
8. Racism due to disability
We can speak of irrational hatred of someone because of their reduced mobility, mental disability or any type of special characteristicthat he owns It is not very common, although there have been some important cases throughout history (Nazis exercised it).
9. Internalized racism
When discriminated individuals internalize the racist message to the point of accepting it as valid, they come to feel ashamed of their “difference” or “condition”. This is what is known as internalized racism, and it leads to very low self-esteem.
10. Racism in reverse
More than a type of racism, it is a response to it. Try to redirect racist behaviorto a group that is not used to it. For example, exercising racism on a white and upper class person. In this case, the objective would not be to demonstrate the superiority of one race over another, but to highlight the contradiction of racism itself.
Other types of racism
We have shown you the most common, although there are as many types of racism as there are aspects that can be discriminated against. In this sense, we can find racism by age or racism according to clothing .
On the other hand, it is true that much of society exercises unintentional racism, and it is that we have come to internalize some of the prejudices that surround us. How many times have we seen a black boy in a box of dark chocolate cookies and a white boy in a box of white chocolate?
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