Decomposing discrimination: why a holistic approach to racism hides more than it reveals

In recent debates on "race" and "racism", a broad definition has emerged that encompasses phenotypic appearance as well as ethnicity and religion. In addition, the "intersectional" interactions between these different characteristics are a core element of this holistic concept of racism. On the basis of labor market and survey experiments, this article shows that such a concept of racism is not very helpful in understanding actual patterns of discrimination. Phenotype, ethnicity and religion each have independent effects on discrimination. Tendencies towards discrimination differ greatly between social and political groups and are not limited to the majority population.