Anti-Black racism

Anti-Black racism, also called anti-Blackness, colourphobia or negrophobia, is characterised by prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination or extreme aversion towards people who are racialised as Black people (especially those people from sub-Saharan Africa and its diasporas), as well as a loathing of Black culture worldwide. Such sentiment includes, but is not limited to, the attribution of negative characteristics to Black people; the fear, strong dislike or dehumanisation of Black men; and the objectification (including sexual objectification) and dehumanisation of Black women.

First defined by Canadian social workers and scholar Akua Benjamin, the term anti-Black racism (ABR) originally described racism towards Black people of African descent, as shaped by European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade. The word black can also apply more widely to other groups, including Pacific and non-Atlantic Blacks (or Blaks), such as Indigenous Australians and Melanesians. As such, anti-Black racism has since been used to refer to racism against Black people more generally. The older terms negrophobia and colourphobia were terms created by American abolitionists to describe racism towards people of Sub-Saharan African descent, who were known at the time as Negroes or Coloured. The term anti-Blackness refers to racism against anyone racialised as Black.