Definitions of Racism

[Chitown Kev]

Really.

I have a BA in classics and was one class short of a double major in classics in English.

On my bookshelf, I can easily put my hands on a number of dictionaries, including a Latin-English dictionary, a Koine-Greek lexicon, an old Webster's Unabridged, Merriam Webster's Collegiate (10th), a dusty copy of H.L. Mencken's "The American Language" (Supplement One) and I believe that I may even have German-English and French-English dictionaries floating around somewhere in the house.

In the course of writing this post, I JUST looked up and noticed that I have a mini-law dictionary (Barron's and not Black's.

Never mind other reference materials about the English language and its evolution that I can't put my hands on at this moment.

And folks are going to come on here and think that I'm impressed that they can give the meaning of "racism" as it stands in the dictionary at this moment...as if I don't know that word meanings and language grammars don't evolve over a period of time.

And as if I don't know that if a term is used in a certain context enough, that definition will be recognized in any reliable and up to date dictionary in due course...you may want to reference recent controversies of the word "marriage."

But...no, I'm too lazy right now to do a small amount of research. So I'll link to a couple of items that I found online about the definition of the word "racism" and let y'all have at it...

Let's use Oxford:

[mass noun]

1Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior:

Let's use Wikipedia, which keeps rather up to date and is protean rather than fixed, with the many controversies surrounding the mere issue of the definition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

here's the link to an npr story

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/05/260006815/the-ugly-fascinating-history-of-the-word-racism

any other materials you might have would be welcomed.

Point being: Language is very rarely fixed and highly variable. Neither "racism" or many other words have a "fixed" definition. Preferences abound.

[Android3.14]

1. Look, Kid, it's obvious what you are doing

Could you go play this game somewhere else?

[FLPanhandle]

2. +1

Pathetically obvious behavior by the OP

[Humanist_Activist]

3. True, but I just find the attempt at redefinition to be absurd, taken to its logical outcome...

no one person can be labeled as racist, only institutions that have the power to discriminate against others, based on race.

It makes the language clumsy, what do you call a KKK member? Or a member of the Nation of Islam?

Its easy to say they are bigots, but bigots against what and for what reason?

The word racist is a shortcut and useful word to label bigots against specific races and race supremacists of all types.

[Chitown Kev]

5. IIRC, for a while

the word was simply used in the context of describing anti-Semitism.

Bigots is actually an interesting word with an interesting (and somewhat unknown) word origin.

[Humanist_Activist]

7. Yeah, though the term "Anti-Semitism" is pretty much a special case...

using the prefix "Anti-" to indicate antagonism against a specific group I guess just became too clumsy, though is still used, rarely. It seems using "-phobia" to label bigotries against groups is currently in vogue. Which makes sense because, when spoken, it does roll off the tongue. Imagine having to call Islamophobes "Anti-Islam" all the time, one's clumsy, the other gets the point across much more quickly. Though the etymology of the terms isn't accurate("in fear of&quot , its a case where literal meaning isn't preferred.

[Chitown Kev]

9. LOL, the number of people

that have come at me with the "how can I be 'homophobic' when I have no fear of homosexuals, I simply don't like homosexuals or homosexuality" line would amaze you.

[Humanist_Activist]

10. Oh, I've had that lined used on me here on DU.

Its playing a word game to try to give a veneer of acceptability.

[mythology]

4. And yet you claim that your definition which isn't the principle definition

Is the accurate definition.

[Chitown Kev]

6. I make no such claim.

I would make the claim that there a few definitions and usages of the word in usage and in circulation and that there isn't a right or a wrong answer, really...and there rarely is with some words and usages...it is interesting to note the definitions that people choose and to speculate on why people choose them.

[tabasco]

8. Find a new shtick.

Where someone might be amused.

[msongs]

11. people choose the definitions that support their own views nt

[Chitown Kev]

12. kind of...yes

what a proper dictionary should do is to list all the current usages and definitions of the word and, when possible, the specific contexts in which the word is used...so beside the "prejudice + power" definition it should indicate that it's used primarily in a sociological context untl it becomes "sufficiently" mainstream.

Somewhere out on the edge of the Internet, I recall seeing post that the "prejudice + power" definition was in the OED for a brief moment and it was excised.

The nice part about this exercise here is that the more we talk about it and debate it, the more likely that it does enter the dictionary at some point.