Racism
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Racism is a belief that some people have that says one race or ethnicity is better or worse than another. These people are called "racists". People have always split people in different groups. This split is usually done on the basis of things that can easily be seen, like the colour of the skin. This may not always be racism. It is racism to say some groups are better than the others and to discriminate other groups. Since race is something a person inherits from his or her forefathers, this can mean a belief that one person is better than another person because of who the ancestors of those people were.
Scientists usually say that different races came from groups of families living in one place for a very long time. However, all races of humans can breed with one another. Some scientists do not believe that races exist, because there is so much variation among individuals and because people from different races often share the same characteristics.
Many countries today say that differences between people are not important as far as the law goes. That means everyone has the same rights guaranteed in the constitutions of those countries.
While most groups of people have some pride in who they are, belief in racism can lead some people to treat other races badly, or try to take away their rights. Many countries in the past have had governments run by racist policies, like Japan, Nazi Germany, modern China, many United States before the civil rights movement, and South Africa during apartheid. In these cases, many people lost their freedom or their lives simply because their races were different from those in the government.
In the 1960s, the Indian Workers' Association in the UK said there was a difference between racialism - the prejudice of those who do not know any better - and racism - the deliberate political use of racial hatred. The two words are often used with the same meaning, despite this distinction being made.
Examples of racist groups in history have been the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Nazi party and the apartheid government in South Africa.
