Learn English – The word for discrimination against people from other regions within a country

racismsingle-word-requests

I wonder if "racism" can be used to refer to discrimination against people from other regions within the same country. According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of "racism" is:

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

So it is up to the definition of "race".

Now, the definition of "race" is:

Each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics.

However, people from other regions usually don't have different physical characteristics.

Is there any such word to refer to discrimination against people who were born and/or grew up in other regions within the same country?

Best Answer

Sectarianism is a technically valid word for describing it. The Wikipedia article on sectarianism mentions differences in regions within a country as an example of the phenomenon:

Sectarianism is a form of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group. Common examples are denominations of a religion, ethnic identity, class, or region for citizens of a state and factions of a political movement.

However, the word is most commonly used for differences between two groups within the same religion.

Related Topic