This paper discusses one approach to investigating the concept of racism and related concepts in the linguistic image of the world of Russian language users. It focuses on the collection of data (associative experiments) and its psycholinguistic interpretation as well as on the theories behind the experiments, including the theory of linguistic consciousness (teoriia iazykovogo soznaniia). The study outcomes suggest that Russians condemn racism but express this condemnation in a culturally specific way, which might lead to significant misunderstandings and conflicts in the international context.