The Etiology of Racism in Europe

Abstract

This monograph on racism briefly goes through various reports prepared by internationai organizations on the comtemporary forms of racism. It tries to define racism, racial discrimination and racial prejudice as well as ethnicity and ethnocentrism. It dwells on individual and group psychologies in order to understand the underlining mechanisms vvhich may lead to racism in times of acute stress. We shall attempt in this study to examine the causes of racism in Europe in a historical perspective. As Encyclopedia Britannica (Macropaedia, Vol. 15, pp. 359-366) points out (and we summarize in the following paragraphs), not only is racism a recent phenomenon in history and the exception rather than the rule as compared to the universal nature of ethnocentrism, it also seems to occur in some parts of the world and not in others.