ABSTRACT
In recent centuries “racism” and “racist” have proved to be among the most frequentlyand loosely-employed epithets for groups or individuals who show disdain for or express a sense of superiority toward other human groups. But the term is best seen as an extreme form of ethnocentrism that has developed in specific his-torical milieus. Properly understood, racism is rooted in the belief that there are innate, biologically based differences in abilities between human groups, which are delineated in varying ways depending on the racist proponent and time period in question. The biological, or in the 20th century genetic, grounding of racial differentiation, distinguishes racism from other forms of ethnocentrism and chauvinism that have been linked primarily to cultural attributes, as formal racist ideas affected popular beliefs in several settings. Alleged racial differences have been used to argue for the superiority and supremacy of certain groups and conversely to demonstrate the inferiority of as well as to justify the domination of others. Though much of the discourse on race and racial differences at the intellectual level has focused on demonstrating gradations in intelligence, less critical phenotypical distinctions, especially skin color, have been the dominant force shaping social interaction between groups distinguished by racial stereotyping.
