racial hierarchy
Stratification by ethnicity
A racial hierarchy is a ranking system that places racial or ethnic groups in a vertical order, typically with one group positioned as superior and others as progressively inferior.
Such hierarchies have been used to justify slavery, colonialism, segregation, and other forms of discrimination: The plantation system depended on a rigid racial hierarchy.
The term appears in both historical analysis and contemporary discussions of systemic racism.
- apartheidRacial separation policy
- separate but equalRacial segregation's constitutional fiction
- colorismBias based on complexion
- color lineSegregation by race
- skin colorPigmentation of human dermis
racialism · segregation · white supremacy · oppression · eugenics · systemic racism · white privilege · one-drop rule · blood quantum · bias · social stratification · pecking order · prejudice · social Darwinism · discrimination · caste system · Jim Crow laws · slavery
- Apartheidapartheid, pass laws, Group Areas Act, passbook, passbooks
- colonialismcolony, colonization, colonial rule, colonial powers, colonizer
- Nazi GermanyAdolf Hitler, Hitler, Nazi, Nazis, Nazi Party
- racismracism, racial bias, white supremacy, racial discrimination, bigotry
- biasprejudice, racism, bigotry, sexism, ageism
- British IndiaBritish Raj, East India Company, viceroy, Raj, governor-general
racial hierarchyracial equality
Equal treatment regardless of ancestry
egalitarianism · social equality · human equality · classless society · meritocracy
racial hierarchyantiracism
Active opposition to bigotry
racial justice · colorblindness · universalism · racial equity · racial integration
racial hierarchycivil rights movement
Organized effort against discrimination
abolitionism · desegregation · anti-apartheid movement · racial reconciliation · integration