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),[1][2] 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.[3][4]
First defined by Canadian social workers and scholar Akua Benjamin,[5][6] the term anti-Black racism (ABR)[7][8] originally described racism towards Black people of African descent, as shaped by European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade.[1][2] The word black can also apply more widely to other groups,[9][10][11] including Pacific and non-Atlantic Blacks (or Blaks), such as Indigenous Australians and Melanesians.[12][13] As such, anti-Black racism has since been used to refer to racism against Black people more generally.[12][11][9] The older terms negrophobia and colourphobia[14] 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.[15][16][17] The term anti-Blackness refers to racism against anyone racialised as Black.[18][19]