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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.
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)
