Quote by Albert Memmi: “Racism is the generalized and naturalized valorization of real or fictitious differences to the benefit of the accuser's profit.”

This definition clarifies that racism isn't just about differences, but about using those differences, whether true or made-up, to gain an advantage. It's a system designed to benefit the group in power by dehumanizing others for profit or power.

Published in the early 1980s, this work offered a rigorous, academic definition of racism during a period when anti-racist movements were gaining traction and academic discourse was evolving.

Tunisian-French writer and sociologist whose 1957 work The Colonizer and the Colonized became a foundational text of postcolonial theory. Born into a Jewish family in Tunis under French rule, he analyzed the psychological damage done to both colonizer and colonized.