White supremacy or
white supremacism is a form of
racism centered upon the belief, and promotion of the belief, that
white people are superior in certain characteristics, traits, and attributes to people of other
racial backgrounds and that therefore white people should politically, economically and socially rule non-white people. The term is also typically used to describe a
political ideology that perpetuates and maintains the
social,
political,
historical and/or
industrial domination by white people (as evidenced by historical and contemporary sociopolitical structures such as the
Atlantic Slave Trade,
Jim Crow laws in the United States, and
apartheid). Different forms of white supremacism put forth different conceptions of who is considered white, and different white supremacists identify various racial and cultural groups as their primary enemy. White supremacist groups have typically opposed
people of color,
immigrants,
Jews, and
Catholics.