Racism vs Prejudice
Updated in August 2025
What’s the difference between making an unfair assumption about someone and upholding a system that marginalized groups from opportunities?
The distinction between prejudice and racism is often blurred. Yet in 2025, with shifting workplace language and growing debates about equity, getting this right has never been more urgent.
What’s the Difference Between Racism and Prejudice?
Racism and prejudice are terms whose meanings get blurred together. However, while they both have negative connotations with potentially similar impacts, they are not interchangeable.
Prejudice is an Attitude
When we talk about prejudice, we’re talking about a biased feeling or belief about someone based on stereotypes, assumptions, or ignorance. It can be conscious or unconscious, and often comes with no supporting factual or rational evidence.
Racism is Structural
When members of a particular group (e.g., ethnic minorities, racial minorities) experience negative reactions and impacts, both on a structural and systemic level. Racism is often embedded in laws, policies, and everyday practices that cause disadvantages.
For example, a study found that “white-sounding” names got call-backs for job interviews far more often than “Black-sounding” names.
Therefore, racism is under the umbrella of prejudice. However, it is often backed by power, priveledge, and systemic inequities.
In short: Prejudice is personal. Racism is structural.
What is Racism?
Racism stems from the false belief that one racial group is superior to others. This is often associated with feelings of racial superiority, an ethnic group’s control over valued resources, or the power of an ethnic group to impose its beliefs and values on others.
According to the Human Rights Commission, racism can be individualized or institutional; reflecting the context of racial superiority, supremacy, and power. Racism creates systems, policies, actions, and attitudes that lead to inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based solely on their race.
While calling someone a racial slur is still racism (an example of overt racism), racism can also go far beyond thought or actionable prejudice:
Institutional Racism: This refers to policies or practices that produce inequitable outcomes (e.g., biased hiring and promotion practices). For example, in the workplace racism can show up when a leader from a non-marginalized group uses their power to discriminate and limit the rights of marginalized individuals.
Systemic: This describes the way laws, institutions, and cultural norms reinforce one another to create disparities for racial minorities.
Individual: Overt acts like harassment or subtle actions like exclusion, gaslighting, or denial of opportunities.
Further, racism can incorporate policies, ideologies, or laws - both of which create barriers for particular race(s) from experiencing justice, dignity, and equity. This can be through covert racism, like gaslighting, tone deafness, or simply not being engaged.
Examples in context:
The rollback of affirmative action in U.S. higher education shows how systemic decisions can close doors for historically excluded groups.
Anti-Asian racism has appeared in different eras: Japanese internment in the 1940s, and scapegoating during COVID-19 in the 2020s.
What is Prejudice?
Prejudice refers to conscious or unconscious stereotypes, prejudgements, or beliefs that one may hold about a particular group of people. It reaches far more broadly than racism alone, and includes a variety of marginalized groups (LGBTQ+ individuals, for example) and doesn’t require evidence or experience, nor does it require power to enforce upon others.
However, despite the lack of evidence, it often fuels discriminatory practices.
Types of prejudice include:
Racial prejudice
Gender prejudice or sexism
Religious prejudice
Ageism
Classism
Homophobia and transphobia
Xenophobia
For example: Doctors across North America have been known to dismiss the pain and experiences of Black patients due to false stereotypes.
Why Does This Matter Now?
Conversations about racism and prejudice aren’t new; but the way workplaces, governments, and communities approach them have shifted dramatically in recent years due to changes in government, attitudes, and systemic approaches to a variety of problems. Certain terms that once dominated headlines are not lightning rods for controversy and harassment.
Yet, the problem of racism and prejudice not only remain real, but demand action rooted in clarity, not just buzzwords.
7 Common Types of Prejudice
Racial prejudices:
Negative feelings, stereotypes, attitudes, or beliefs towards a people due to their ethnic or racial makeup.
Gender Prejudice or Sexism:
Stereotypes or attitudes held based on someone’s gender or perceived gender.
Religious Prejudice:
Holding negative views or attitudes towards an individual due to their religion or lack thereof.
Ageism:
Prejudice against an individual due to their age spanning from believing people are “too old” for some situations or “too young” for others.
Classism:
Holding prejudicial views or attitudes towards individuals from a lower socioeconomic status. These views can easily manifest into discrimination; impacting access to essential social services, like education, employment, and healthcare.
Homophobia and Transphobia:
Prejudiced views against members of the LGBTQ+ community based on their sexuality and gender identity.
Xenophobia:
Prejudice held against foreigners, in particular refugees or immigrants from low-income countries. Xenophobia and racism may have similarities, however, xenophobia focuses more on nationality, culture, and origin, though race does contribute.
How Discrimination Is Also Part of the Picture
It’s also worth noting that while discrimination can stem from prejudice and racism, prejudice, and discrimination are two different concepts. Discrimination is an act while prejudice is feelings, thoughts, and attitudes.
Racism vs. Discrimination vs. Prejudice
Prejudice = the thought or feeling
Discrimination = the act that follows
Racism = when prejudice and discrimination intersect with power and systems
The Impact of Racism and Prejudice in the Workplace
Prejudice doesn’t just harm individuals, it undermines workplace culture, trust, and innovation. Racism, at the structural level, blocks access to promotions, equal pay, and leadership opportunities
For example:
Black Americans experience the highest unemployment rate (double the national rate) amongst any other racial or ethnic group. Yet, as the second-largest minority group in the U.S., Black people make up only 12.1% of the total population. Several factors contribute to these high rates, including racial discrimination and education gaps.
The Pew Research Center reports that Black workers generally earn less than other U.S. workers (an average of US$878 against $1,059 for other races). This is the same case even among workers with a bachelor's or advanced degree. As Black people have been excluded or disadvantaged in the economy and workplaces, this has led to lower incomes.
Similarly, while Black workers do access some industry jobs, they are still significantly excluded in STEM fields. A Pew Research Center survey found that Black people still experience barriers stemming from unwelcoming professional environments, and a lack of mentorship and representation for younger people in the field.
A sizable number of minorities report to have experienced racial or ethnic-based discrimination at work. About 4 in 10 Black workers (41%), 25% of Asians, and 20% of Hispanics report experiencing discrimination or unfair treatment in hiring, pay, or promotion due to their race or ethnicity.
More than half (64%) of Black workers say that racial bias and discrimination play a major role in hiring and performance evaluations; creating a significant barrier to progression and advancement at the workplace.
These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re patterns shaped by both prejudice and racism.
Where We Stand Today
Despite the shift in inclusive language, the need to address inequity hasn’t gone away. Organizations are reframing their approach around:
Belonging: ensuring employees feel valued and supported.
Culture: embedding fairness and respect into daily practices.
Access and Opportunity: reducing systemic barriers in hiring, pay, and advancement.
The terminology may shift, but the responsibility to create equitable workplaces remains.
3 Ways to Respond in 2025
1. Focus on Systems, Not Just Individuals
Go beyond one-off training. Audit hiring, promotions, and policies to uncover systemic inequities.
2. Foster Belonging Through Everyday Practices
Encourage leaders to model inclusive behaviors, like equitable meeting facilitation, transparent evaluations, and accountability for biased actions.
3. Commit to Measurable Culture Goals
Instead of vague promises, set clear benchmarks: e.g., increase representation in leadership, reduce pay gaps, and track employee sense of belonging over time.
Final Thoughts
Racism and prejudice are often confused, but the distinction matters. Prejudice is personal bias. Racism is systemic inequity. Addressing both requires courage, consistency, and a shift away from performative programs toward meaningful culture change.
The terminology may evolve, but the work of building fair, inclusive workplaces is here to stay.
FAQ: Quick Answers to Your Questions on Racism and Prejudice
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Not all prejudices express themselves via hate or anger. It can show up as pity, assumptions of incompetence, or “benevolent prejudice” (such as assuming women require protection or believing older colleagues cannot learn new skills). Even if it feels less hostile, these attitudes are still harmful because they deny people agency and equal treatment.
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Yes. A person may not hold biases, but if they benefit from or enforce policies that disadvantage racialized groups, even unintentionally, that’s still racism at a systemic level.
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Because if we blend them together, we miss the bigger picture. Prejudice might harm individuals, but racism entrances inequity across entire groups and systems.
