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A more useful definition from So you want to talk about race: Racism is any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by

A more useful definition from So you want to talk about race: Racism is any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by systems of power. This definition is useful in the sense that it helps focus efforts on what needs to be addressed - systemic racism - vs trying to convince 100% of individuals to stop being racists in their day-to-day.

mcintyre1994 6y ago
This feels a bit too vague still though, because from all we know about the restaurant/delivery ecosystem it'd be fair to describe Uber Eats as a system of power over all involved restaurants, right?
Orou 6y ago
> Racism is any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by systems of power. The addition of "systems of power" to the definition of racism is a recent one, and it blurs the lines between "racism" and "systemic racism" as separate concepts by introducing power dynamics. Having clear definitions for abstract concepts is essential for people to understand each other and (hopefully) reach consensus. Redefining words so that they better suit certain ideological perspectives does not help that cause. It also casually implies that being prejudiced and discriminatory based on skin tone is fine, as long as you're discriminating "up", not "down".
- sshumaker 6y ago
  Here’s the argument from the book: how we define racism also determines how we battle it. If we have cancer and it makes us vomit, we can commit to battling nausea and say we’re fighting for our lives, even though the tumor will likely still kill us. When we look at racism simply as “any racial prejudice,” we are entered into a battle to win over the hearts and minds of everyone we encounter—fighting only the symptoms of the cancerous system, not the cancer itself. This is not only an impossible task, it’s a pretty useless one. Getting my neighbor to love people of color might make it easier to hang around him, but it won’t do anything to combat police brutality, racial income inequality, food deserts, or the prison industrial complex. So using “systems of power” in the definition enables more effective action to address it.
s1artibartfast 6y ago
This definition is problematic because it denies racism at the individual level if it does not align with institutional racism.
EForEndeavour 6y ago
By that (re)definition, is it still racist if an American of Mexican heritage calls an American of East Asian heritage a racial slur?

mcintyre1994 6y ago

This feels a bit too vague still though, because from all we know about the restaurant/delivery ecosystem it'd be fair to describe Uber Eats as a system of power over all involved restaurants, right?

Orou 6y ago

> Racism is any prejudice against someone because of their race, when those views are reinforced by systems of power. The addition of "systems of power" to the definition of racism is a recent one, and it blurs the lines between "racism" and "systemic racism" as separate concepts by introducing power dynamics. Having clear definitions for abstract concepts is essential for people to understand each other and (hopefully) reach consensus. Redefining words so that they better suit certain ideological perspectives does not help that cause. It also casually implies that being prejudiced and discriminatory based on skin tone is fine, as long as you're discriminating "up", not "down".

sshumaker 6y ago
Here’s the argument from the book: how we define racism also determines how we battle it. If we have cancer and it makes us vomit, we can commit to battling nausea and say we’re fighting for our lives, even though the tumor will likely still kill us. When we look at racism simply as “any racial prejudice,” we are entered into a battle to win over the hearts and minds of everyone we encounter—fighting only the symptoms of the cancerous system, not the cancer itself. This is not only an impossible task, it’s a pretty useless one. Getting my neighbor to love people of color might make it easier to hang around him, but it won’t do anything to combat police brutality, racial income inequality, food deserts, or the prison industrial complex. So using “systems of power” in the definition enables more effective action to address it.

s1artibartfast 6y ago

This definition is problematic because it denies racism at the individual level if it does not align with institutional racism.

EForEndeavour 6y ago

By that (re)definition, is it still racist if an American of Mexican heritage calls an American of East Asian heritage a racial slur?