Foci and abstractions of categorism

Categorism is "prejudice, bigotry and discrimination, based on a categorization of human beings".

This statement has two halves, yet it signifies that categorism has three aspects: The facets, the foci and the abstractions.

The first half of the statement equals the first of these three aspects, as "prejudice, bigotry and discrimination" are the three archetypical facets of categorism with all other facets being functions of these three.

The second half of the statement equals the second and third of the three aspects. This is because the statement "based on a categorization of human beings" has two very different meanings.

• One is that categorism is based on specific categorizations of human beings. These are the foci of categorism: Categorism is called racism when it is based on a categorization into races, called sexism when it is based on a categorization into genders, and so on.
• The other is that categorism is based on a categorization as such. When a categorization of human beings becomes problematic in itself, it becomes an abstraction of categorism.