3 ms·
"Racist" seems to fit the bill here. Some people view racism as "prejudice + power". This comes from academia and is an example of an improper noun from the ar
by googlryas 4y ago
"Racist" seems to fit the bill here.
Some people view racism as "prejudice + power". This comes from academia and is an example of an improper noun from the article, but has found its way outside of it through, I'll paraphrase - Twitter SJWs.
Then, you have the traditional colloquial definition of racism, which is just "disliking someone because of their skin color".
Then, you have an expansion on the colloquial definition, which brings all sorts of other traits under the umbrella of racism, where basically any kind of xenophobia may be referred to as racism.
I think we have 3 very common beliefs about the definition of racism floating around in America, which is a shame since it is such a focal point of half the conversations in America, and the people talking to each other probably have different internal definitions of this word.
- samatman 4y agoThis is the mistake theory version of what's going on: racism, a term which is not that old, but which in the Civil Rights era had a broadly agreed-upon meaning, somehow became a term of art, by accident, and now sometimes people mean two things by it. The conflict theory is that this conflation was deliberately promulgated to serve power. Then it would be, not an improper noun, but a weaponized ambiguity.
- googlryas 4y agoPromulgate whose power? The powers that be, or academic/"Twitter SJW" power? I'm not convinced that it is a particularly effective weapon, since most normal people would be confused and not convinced when someone posits that a black person saying "All white people must die" is not racist.