In the 19th century, many scientists subscribed to the belief that the human population can be

divided into races. The term racism is a noun describing the state of being racist, i.e., subscribing to
the belief that the human population can or should be classified into races with differential abilities
and dispositions, which in turn may motivate a political ideology in which rights and privileges are
differentially distributed based on racial categories. The origin of the root word "race" is not clear.
Linguists generally agree that it came to the English language from Middle French, but there is no
such agreement on how it generally came into Latin-based languages. A recent proposal is that it
derives from the Arabic ra's, which means "head, beginning, origin" or the Hebrew rosh, which has a
similar meaning.[10] Early race theorists generally held the view that some races were inferior to
others and they consequently believed that the differential treatment of races was fully justified. [11][12][13]
[14]
 These early theories guided pseudo-scientific research assumptions; the collective endeavors to
adequately define and form hypotheses about racial differences are generally termed scientific
racism, though this term is a misnomer, due to the lack of any actual science backing the claims.
Today, most biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists reject a taxonomy of races in favor of more
specific and/or empirically verifiable criteria, such as geography, ethnicity, or a history of endogamy.
[15]
 To date, there is little evidence in human genome research which indicates that race can be
defined in such a way as to be useful in determining a genetic classification of humans. [16][17][18]
An entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (2008) defines racialism as "[a]n earlier term than racism,
but now largely superseded by it", and cites the term "racialism" in a 1902 quote. [19] The revised
Oxford English Dictionary cites the shortened term "racism" in a quote from the following year, 1903.
[20][21]
 It was first defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1989) as "[t]he theory that
distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race"; the same dictionary
termed racism a synonym of racialism: "belief in the superiority of a particular race". By the end
of World War II, racism had acquired the same supremacist connotations formerly associated
with racialism: racism now implied racial discrimination, racial supremacism, and a harmful intent.
(The term "race hatred" had also been used by sociologist Frederick Hertz in the late 1920s.)
As its history indicates, the popular use of the word racism is relatively recent. The word came into
widespread usage in the Western world in the 1930s, when it was used to describe the social and
political ideology of Nazism, which treated "race" as a naturally given political unit. [22] It is commonly
agreed that racism existed before the coinage of the word, but there is not a wide agreement on a
single definition of what racism is and what it is not. [11] Today, some scholars of racism prefer to use
the concept in the plural racisms, in order to emphasize its many different forms that do not easily
fall under a single definition. They also argue that different forms of racism have characterized
different historical periods and geographical areas. [23] Garner (2009: p. 11) summarizes different
existing definitions of racism and identifies three common elements contained in those definitions of
racism. First, a historical, hierarchical power relationship between groups; second, a set of ideas (an
ideology) about racial differences; and, third, discriminatory actions (practices). [11]

Legal
Though many countries around the globe have passed laws related to race and discrimination, the
first significant international human rights instrument developed by the United Nations (UN) was
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),[24] which was adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly in 1948. The UDHR recognizes that if people are to be treated with dignity, they
require economic rights, social rights including education, and the rights
to cultural and political participation and civil liberty. It further states that everyone is entitled to these
rights "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".
The UN does not define "racism"; however, it does define "racial discrimination". According to the
1965 UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,[25]
The term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference
based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying
or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
In their 1978 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice (Article 1), the UN states, "All human beings
belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity
and rights and all form an integral part of humanity." [26]
The UN definition of racial discrimination does not make any distinction between discrimination
based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the two has been a matter of
debate among academics, including anthropologists.[27] Similarly, in British law, the phrase racial
group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality
(including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin". [28]
In Norway, the word "race" has been removed from national laws concerning discrimination because
the use of the phrase is considered problematic and unethical. [29][30] The Norwegian Anti-
Discrimination Act bans discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, descent, and skin color. [31]