In the work entitled "Racisms", Kwame Anthony Appiah explains the heart of racism as to be a doctrine called racialism. Racialism is the belief that there are different sets of races, which are established by groups of people sharing common, unique heritable characteristics. This leads to these groups becoming exclusive and not including other members of the species who do not share the common characteristics. These unique traits create the "racial essence" as Appiah calls it. The racial essence is the basis of making moral judgments and that there is more to a person other than just using morphological characteristics to classify which race they belong to.
Appiah indicates that there is two forms that exist based on the doctrine of racialism. These two forms are called extrinsic racism and intrinsic racism. He describes extrinsic racists as "people who make moral distinctions between members of different races because they believe that the racial essence entails certain morally relevant qualities" (Appiah 2012, 630). Extrinsic racists will believe that some races will have different advantages and disadvantages due to what race they are part of. For example, extrinsic racists will argue that many African Americans are less intelligent from other groups of races because they are simply African Americans. On the other hand, Appiah describes intrinsic racists "as people who differentiate morally between members of different races because they believe that each race has a different moral status, quite independent of the moral characters entailed by its racial essence" (Appiah 2012, 630). The main idea the intrinsic racists hold is that they neglect the deep difference of intelligence, courage, or honesty between various races. For example, many white Americans believe that they are morally superior to other racial groups because they are simply white.