Race is an arbitrary and false social construct and distinction. But there is only one race - the human race. Within the human race there are people of different color, different genders and sexual orientations, people from different nations, but its all the human race. The very idea of there being races was invented during the time of European expansion, colonization and domination - I mean, how much easier to oppress a people when it's believed that they are of a different race, that they are not the same as you. Racism, then, is the result of this deceptive and error-filled means of categorization.
Racism is color prejudice and the misuse of institutional power.
Let me unpack this. We all have prejudice, we all prejudge, it's a part of living. Some do their prejudging of people based on the color of skin, facial characteristics and accent. In and of itself, this may not be all that bad. But racism is more than color prejudice, its prejudice enforced by power, by institutional power, as in the institutions which make the rules that determine whose in charge.