racist
noun
- A person who believes a particular race is superior to others.
- a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others
That has been the standard definition since it was a thing. It is how slave owners felt. It is how KKK members felt, and much to Whoopi Goldberg’s chagrin, it is how the Nazis felt. Racism has always been about one group feeling superior to another group.
Racism is not when someone points out differences between groups. In fact, differences between groups should be celebrated not treated like an insult. It’s not racism when someone from a different group does, says, wears, or otherwise “appropriates” something from another group. If the person doing, saying, wearing, or what have you was racist they would think that the “others” group was inferior and NOT “appropriate” their culture. I guarantee you no Nazi was “appropriating” Jewish culture.
Racism is also not pointing out how different cultures have different values, traditions, and ideas. Such as some cultures value education, some cultures value religion, some cultures value violence and scamming the system. Racism is, however, claiming that someone from a particular race is unable to break away from their culture and adopt different values, and that the only way anyone from one group could possibly succeed is to either lower the standards or by way of help from the “better, more advanced race”. That’s just full-on racism in it’s true form.
Today people who believe the second version are doing their best to make those who understand the first version are the true racists. So, for instance, one group says, “Society has rules. They are rules that, as a society we have found better the life of everyone involved. If you would like to better your life, then just follow these simple rules and you too will see that your life is better.”. These rules have come from centuries of seeing how different societies all over the world have succeeded and bringing them all together to create something new.
The United States is a great example of this set of rules. They are considered “White” rules because the majority of people in the US are white, but in reality, a lot of these rules come from many cultures not formally considered “white” by traditional standards. Ironically, the racial groups not previously considered white actually can be found to be more successful, because traditionally they place a bigger value on family and tend to live together and support each other longer. In fact, “white” used to be only British people. As white only became a race in segregated America at a time when the dominant race was British. Even Italians, Irish, Germans were all different races in all other terms. But with segregation it was decided that there needed to be a term that separated ex slaves from the common citizenry. Thus “White” was born.
Now “white” is used as a synonym for success. Anyone who becomes successful is now either considered white or “trying to be white”. So, for instance, Asians are now on the hierarchy stage of being white adjacent because they are one of the highest earning groups in American society. They get into elite colleges at a higher rate as well, therefore a cap had to be put on the number of Asians allowed into the elite colleges because of course it wasn’t fair to those whose cultures don’t put hard work and success on the list of values to attain. And let’s not forget any black person that does rise to success and pay tribute to hard work and perseverance… they just “want to be white”.
Now it is the fault of the hard working that those who don’t work hard don’t succeed, because “everyone knows ‘those people’ aren’t capable of hard work”. This is the crap that’s being taught in schools. It’s being taught that one group is oppressed by the system because it is set up for those capable of hard work. The Smithsonian came out with a breakdown of “white supremacist” which included things like hard work and being on time. Groups are pushing to remove tests and having to answer questions correctly because it oppresses a whole group of people not capable of such feats. There are groups of people pushing to stop police from arresting those who steal because they’re not capable of doing real work to earn goods. Today Biden put aside $30 million to give crack pipes out to inner city black people in the name of equity. Because that’s what “those people” really want. There’s a reason why the new Black Heroes are all violent criminals, and people like Dr King and Fredrick Douglas are having their statues torn down.
Racism is alive and well in this country, but we have to call it out when we see it, and we have to use words properly. Racism is not understanding that racial/ethnic groups are different and have different values, traditions, and ideas. Racism is believing that people from one racial/ethnic group is incapable of being successful simply because of their racial/ethnic group.
