Racism is an assault, often intentional but also covert, by individual acts or regular practice, against persons for the sole reason of their ancestry, history, or physical appearance. The person who has never had an encounter with someone hostile to his or her race will find it hard to comprehend. It is sheer horror, the worst of mockery. What then is race? This is a much harder question. Racial theorists like to say that race is both real and imaginary, a construct and a reality. This desire to have it both ways leads to some odd and contradictory conclusions.