The familiar isms could be seen as subspecies of rankism. Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, ageism and others all depend for their existence on differences of social rank that in turn reflect underlying power differences, so they are forms of rankism.
Rankism erodes the will to learn, distorts personal relationships, taxes economic productivity, and stokes ethnic hatred. It is the cause of dysfunctionality, and sometimes even violence, in families, schools, and the workplace.
— Robert W. Fuller, Somebodies and Nobodies