Racism facts for kids
Racism is the belief that one race is better than another. It may mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity.
During the Holocaust, Nazis in Germany believed that some races did not even deserve to exist. These beliefs were racist. Because of those beliefs, Nazis killed many people who belonged to those races. The actions that resulted from their racist beliefs were also racist.
Racism has existed throughout human history. It has caused wars, slavery, the creation of nations, and laws. However, racism has never been the only cause of wars and slavery. Leaders often used racism to make their actions seem all right. For example, the Nazis used the idea that Slavic peoples were less than human to make it seem all right to take over those people's countries.
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Race and ethnicity
Humans often categorize themselves by race or ethnicity. People in the same ethnic group are often connected by ancestry, speaking the same language, having the same culture, having similar physical traits, and living in the same places.
However, scientists say that humans do not really fit well into these categories biologically. The DNA of people from different races is very similar. Evidence from genetics and archaeology suggests that all humans came from the same group of early humans in East Africa and the Middle East. This means that all humans came from the same race and separated into different races later. Because white people historically had more power at times, some people call racism against white people reverse racism.
Some examples of racism
- The Jim Crow laws in the United States, about 1890 to 1960
- The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire
- The Nuremberg Laws and The Holocaust in Nazi Germany, 1935-45
- The Apartheid laws in South Africa, after 1948
- The White Australia policy in Australia
- The Ku Klux Klan, a group that discriminated against and attacked African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants
- The Nation of Yahweh, group in America that believes African Americans are the original Israelites and should be moved back to Israel
Racist ideologies
European 'Aryanism'
In the late 18th century, Europeans began using the term Aryan to describe themselves: caucasians who spoke the Indo-European languages. They thought of themselves as better than other cultures. By the late 19th century, some Europeans began to use the name Aryan for only the Nordic peoples of Europe. They claimed that they were a "pure" race that descended from the original Aryan tribes. This idea became popular in Germany, Austria, and Hungary.
Europeans and Asians both thought of their races as better than races with other skin colors. This belief led to African slavery, Apartheid, the Jim Crow Laws, Nazism, and Japanese imperialism.
Colonialism
When Europeans came to America to form colonies, they killed thousands of Native Americans. When the European settlers got to Australia, they started killing off large numbers of Aborigines. With the birth of their empires, many other native tribes suffered in Canada, New Zealand, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.
Japan also thought their culture was better than the cultures of the Chinese and Koreans in their colonies.
Anglo-French racism
Racism in the UK, Ireland, and France was usually about limiting the rights of Jews, Roma, and minorities like the French Basques.
As countries became independent after the 1950s, many migrated to the UK and France, but were discriminated against. Some British cafes and hotels would not welcome in Caribbean guests and the French made Arabs feel unwelcome in some French towns as well. The events of September 11, 2001, have worsened the French and British fears about Islam and Arabs in general. Racist parties like the UK's British National Party and National Front use these fears to get votes.
Nazism
Nazi Germany used unproven scientific findings of racial difference to make their policies seem all right. The racialist policy with its idea of "Großdeutschland" (Greater Germany) and the Nordic race idea were advertised as good in Nazi Germany. The Nazis falsely blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I and the Great Depression. The Nazis and some of their anti-Semitic allies, like Hungary, committed genocide against the Jews during the Holocaust of World War II.
Both the Nazis and Romania's Iron Guard also persecuted the Roma, who they considered part of the inferior 'Indic' race. The Porajmos is the name given to the systematic attempt at genocide of the Roma.
During World War II, the Nazis killed more than Jews and Roma. They also killed Slavs, lesbians, Communists, liberals, and gays.
Fascist Italy
Fascist Benito Mussolini said in 1919 that Jewish bankers in London and New York City were bound by the chains of race to Moscow. He claimed that 80 percent of the Soviet leaders were Jews.
Many Italian fascists strongly disliked the Slavic nations because they thought those nations were in competition with Italy. Mussolini said that Italy would get its own way and was willing to fight to settle arguments.
Italy, like Germany, Austria, and Hungary, considered all Slavs and Roma as stupid, racially inferior due to the effects of Social Darwinism, and undeserving of their basic rights.
Racism in Romania
The Iron Guard was an antisemitic fascist movement and political party in Romania from 1927 to 1941. They despised and denounced both Jews and the Roma.
Racism in America
American racism has been a major issue in the country since before its founding. European settlers came to America and showed racist attitudes toward Native Americans.
Millions of Africans were killed while they were held as prisoners or as slaves by the Europeans and Arabs. The African-American people and some others call this "The Black Holocaust."
Mexican, Chinese, Japansee, and Irish immigrants had trouble in America during the 19th century. Black people suffered through the Jim Crow Laws. This lasted until the mid 1960s and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Racism in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, most people are white. 7% are Asian and 3% are black. 4.83% of the British population are Muslims. Muslims traditionally practice and ordain the Shariah Law (which traditionally punishes criminals with public amputations and stoning). In a 2013 poll, 27% of 1000 British people aged between 18 and 24 said that they did not trust Muslims.
Racism in South Africa
South African Apartheid laws were a system used to deny many rights of non-white people. They started in 1948. Though there were more black people in the country, the laws made it so they had to carry special papers (passes) or have permission to live and work in certain areas. White people made intermarriage with non-white people illegal with the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949. Black people were even banned from voting at one point. Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Mandela ended apartheid.
Currently, racism is more against white people in South Africa. The former black President Zuma of South Africa publicly sang "Kill The Boer," which means "Kill the White [Farmer]." After he resigned from the presidency in 2018, another black person named Cyril Ramaphosa was elected. Genocidewatch.org reports that white South Africans are facing genocide.
The Imperial Rule Assistance Association of Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe made it so that strategic industries, the news media, and the labor unions were run by the government. This is called nationalization. He did this to prepare for total war with China during World War II. Japan wanted more land, minerals, and colonies, so they annexed Korea and Manchuria. They also invaded China so they could annex part of it as well. The Japanese thought the Chinese, Koreans, and Europeans were an inferior race and should be crushed and that their land and possessions should be taken.
A changing world
After many people learned about the holocaust and with the current worldwide antiracist efforts, old ideas about race changed and, more slowly, some prejudices about race faded. The civil rights movement tried to free people of African origin from racist white supremacist rule in South Africa and the southern USA. Black people could vote in South Africa after a 50-year ban.
In some cases in the United States, Affirmative action and political correctness have caused reverse racism. This is when there is racism in favor of – rather than against – minorities.
Related pages
Images for kids
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An early use of the word racism by Richard Henry Pratt in 1902: "Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism."
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African-American university student Vivian Malone entering the University of Alabama in the U.S. to register for classes as one of the first African-American students to attend the institution. Until 1963, the university was racially segregated and African-American students were not allowed to attend.
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In 1899, Uncle Sam (a personification of the United States) balances his new possessions which are depicted as savage children. The figures are Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines and "Ladrones" (the Mariana Islands).
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A rally against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1959
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A sign on a racially segregated beach during the Apartheid era in South Africa, stating that the area is for the "sole use of members of the white race group"
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A 1917 anti-conscription propaganda leaflet imploring voters to "keep Australia white." A horde of Asians bearing a dragon flag is shown to the north.
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The Book of Genesis's biblical curse on Canaan, which was often misinterpreted as a curse on his father Ham, was used to justify slavery in 19th century America.
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Advertisement for Pears' Soap Caption reads, "Matchless for the complexion..." Illustration of 'before and after' use of soap by black child in the bath; soap washes off his dark complexion.
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A late-19th-century illustration from Ireland from One or Two Neglected Points of View by H. Strickland Constable shows an alleged similarity between "Irish Iberian" and "Negro" features in contrast to the "higher" "Anglo-Teutonic."
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One in a series of posters attacking Radical Republicans on the issue of black suffrage, issued during the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1866
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Eichmann's list of the Jewish population in Europe, drafted for the Wannsee Conference, held to ensure the cooperation of various levels of the Nazi government in the Final Solution
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A drinking fountain from the mid-20th century labelled "Colored" with an African-American man drinking
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On September 12, 2011, Julius Malema, the youth leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, was found guilty of hate speech for singing "Shoot the Boer" at a number of public events.
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The burnt out remains of Govinda's Indian Restaurant in Fiji, May 2000
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Madison Grant's map, from 1916, charting the "present distribution of European races," with the Nordics in red, the Alpines in green, and the Mediterraneans in yellow
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Sociological model of ethnic and racial conflict
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Separate "white" and "colored" entrances to a café in North Carolina, 1940
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1935 Chart from Nazi Germany used to explain the Nuremberg Laws, defining which Germans were to be considered Jews and stripped of their citizenship. Germans with three or more Jewish grandparents were defined as Jews, Germans with one or two Jewish grandparents were deemed Mischling (mixed-blood).
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19th century political cartoon: Uncle Sam kicks out the Chinaman, referring to the Chinese Exclusion Act
See also
In Spanish: Racismo para niños
