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Revision as of 12:55, 27 January 2021

Categorism is "prejudice, bigotry and discrimination at any level, based on a categorization of people".

While the phenomenon here called "categorism" is more commonly known as "racism" (in a very wide sense of the word racism), it may be not only a more common definition of racism but also preferable in itself to make the following distinction between racism and categorism: Use the term "categorism" for the general phenomenon which is regardless of what category of people is being targeted or what categorization of people is being focused on, and use the word "racism" when the categorization is one such as skin-color or ethnicity.

Expressions of categorism

Prejudice, bigotry and discrimination against a category of people can be done in many different ways. For example by stigmatizing people or by exploiting them. Note that just like the word "racism" is sometimes used as a catch-all term synonymous with categorism, the word "bigotry" is sometimes also used as a catch-all term synonymous with categorism. The word "bigotry" is here used in a more limited sense instead: "Prejudice" refers to unjustified beliefs beyond preconceptions, "bigotry" refer to emotional states such as hate/fear/superiority, and "discrimination" refers to actions such as mistreating innocent individuals or implementing policies which causes mistreatment of innocent individuals.

Levels of context and hegemony

When categorism is done, it is done in a social context. This context can be interaction between two or a few individuals (micro level), a biger context such as an organization (meso level) or a very big context such as a country or global subculture (macro level). In the given context, a certain form of categorism may be more or less maginalized or more or less hegemonic. In a context where categorism against a certain category of people is widespread or even hegemonic, it can be reasonable to count the people in this category as being oppressed.

Foci of categorism

When people do categorism, they do it focused on a certain categorization of people. Such specific foci of categorism are commonly known by names such as...

• Racism, when it's based on a categorization of "race", skin-color or ethnic background.
• Sexism, when it's based on a categorization of sex/gender.
• Homophobia, when it's targeting homosexuals and to some extent other LGBTQ+ people.

(Temporary note: Revamp in progress, link to old main may still be relevant)