By Chris Brand. I hope and believe that I am not a racist in the usual sense of that over-used term. Like any other attitude, true racism involves affective, cognitive and conative components. To have an attitude is to feel a certain way, to have particular beliefs, and to intend to act on those feelings and beliefs. But the three components are distinguishable and can exist independently, as follows.
Race prejudice is the usual term for the affective component of racism.
A person may have a mild or strong aversion to people of another race for no very obvious good reason. For example, Japanese people do not like the way Caucasians smell. But it will tend to lead to selective exposure to people of other races and even to pre-judging information about them. Race realism is the most obvious term for the cognitive component of racism. Here the person entertains sincere beliefs about race differences which are taken to be reasonably important and quite deep-seated.