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racism
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racially restricted beach in apartheid-era South Africa
racially restricted beach in apartheid-era South Africa Sign at a beach in Durban, South Africa, in 1989, during the apartheid era. It restricted use of the beach to “members of the white race group,” in accordance with South Africa's racial segregation laws of the time. Legislated apartheid ended in the early 1990s.

racism

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Also known as: racialism
Written by
Audrey Smedley
Professor of Anthropology, Virginia Commonwealth University. Author of Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview.
Audrey Smedley
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

racism, the belief that humans may be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races”; that there is a causal link between inherited physical traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural and behavioral features; and that some races are innately superior to others. The term is also applied to political, economic, or legal institutions and systems that engage in or perpetuate discrimination on the basis of race or otherwise reinforce racial...

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