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Racism in the dictionary means

a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

Is there a word or phrase that means

a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement

without implying "the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others"?

None of the other answers are relevant.

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    What does “None of the other answers are relevant” mean? Commented May 29, 2013 at 6:49
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    Raciality recognizes "inherent differences among the various human races" and stops there.
    – Kris
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 6:59
  • @jwpat7 The related answers, for example, english.stackexchange.com/questions/91540/…, does not address this question. There are only a few search results for 'racism' and nothing specifically answers this question.
    – Chloe
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 22:45
  • @Kris Interesting, but I can't find a definition for raciality. Webster's wanted a subscription no less! It turns red in my spell checker.
    – Chloe
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 22:49
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    I think the part you want to have automatically implies the part you don't want to imply. It's in its nature.
    – nl-x
    Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 9:44

3 Answers 3

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Raciality recognizes "inherent differences among the various human races" and stops there.

A citation that may be relevant to explain the usage of raciality [emphasis mine]:

… raciation and raciality are important and unavoidable social facts. They describe the way people's racial histories and identities inform how they "organize meaningfully, give order to, and thus define and construct the worlds in which we live, our life-words (Outlaw, 1996, p.5). Raciality, ethinicity, and gender "are constitutive of the personal and social being of persons … they make up the historically mediated structural features of human life-worlds and inform lived experience" (p.174)

Outlaw emphasizes that raciality is a postive phenomenon, and he stresses that "racialism neither is nor need become racism" (1996, p.8)

Racism comprises "sets of beliefs, images and practices that are 'imbued with negative valuation' and employed as modes of exclusion, inferiorization, subordination, and exploitation in order to deny targeted racial or ethnic groups full participation in the social, political, economic, and cultural life of a political community" (p.8)
Racialism is the positive recognition of how the constitute features of one's lifeworld, one's personality and sense of historical and cultural identitiy, comprise a set of preconscious filters and assumptions that frame how life is felt and lived. Racialism's valuation is positive, not negative. … We can celebrate the constitutive elements of our and others' raciality in a way imbued with generosity and recognition quite different from the brutal, negative celebration of one's racism.

Stephen Brookfield: The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning And Teaching, p.281-282 (GoogleBooks)

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Consider racialism

"'Racism' implies a presumption of racial superiority and a harmful intent, whereas advocates of positive racial differences use the word 'racialism' to indicate a strong interest in matters of race without the presumption of superiority or the desire to cause harm to others."

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    Racialism is defined in the Oxford dictionary as another term for racism. I think people would be confused by that.
    – Chloe
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 2:40
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A little too specific maybe, but: genetic determinism?

After a little research, it seems that biological determinism fits better:

Biological determination (also biologism) is the interpretation of humans and human life from a strictly biological point of view, and it is closely related to genetic determinism. Another definition is that biological determinism is the hypothesis that biological factors such as an organism's individual genes (as opposed to social or environmental factors) completely determine how a system behaves or changes over time.

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  • How do you define that? Why do you think it fits? Who has used the expression to what effect, where, when? I will deem this an answer only then and only then shall I up vote. Lol.
    – Kris
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 6:47
  • Interesting, but 'determinism' might imply predestination, or lack of free will. If discussing a negative attribute, this will surely have a negative connotation. Perhaps there is a term for 'different' but neutral. I believe there may be no such term in English.
    – Chloe
    Commented May 31, 2013 at 23:02

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