Race
A socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.
Ethnicity
A shared cultural heritage.
Minority
Any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates.
Prejudice
A rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people.
Stereotype
A simplified description applied to every person in some category.
Racism
The belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another.
Scapegoat theory
Holds that prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged.
Scapegoat
A person or category of people, typically with little power, whom other people unfairly blame for their own troubles.
Authoritarian personalities
Personality types that Theodor Adorno considered likely to show extreme prejudice.
Culture theory
Claims that although extreme prejudice is found in certain people, some prejudice is found in everyone, because it is part of the culture in which we all live and learn.
Conflict theory
Proposes that prejudice is used as a tool by powerful people not only to justify privilege for themselves but also to oppress others.
Discrimination
Unequal treatment of various categories of people.
Institutional prejudice and discrimination
Bias built into the operation of society's institutions.
Pluralism
A state in which people of all races and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing.
Assimilation
The process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture.
Miscegenation
Biological reproduction by partners of different racial categories.
Segregation
The physical and social separation of categories of people.
Genocide
The systematic killing of one category of people by another.