The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate

[Glassunion]

91. Orwell - 1984 - Doublespeak

For those who have not read the book, Doublespeak - is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. In Orwell's dystopian future, Doublespeak was used either to make the truth sound more palatable, or to reverse or disguise the truth. War is Peace sort of a thing.

Miriam Webster defines Racism as
: poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race
: the belief that some races of people are better than others

Full Definition of RACISM
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2: racial prejudice or discrimination

Redefining racism, by softening the definition IMO takes the teeth away from the word. By saying that racism is "a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not." it does many things in my mind. For one, the use of the word gets tossed around for anything and everything we do not like, thus removing its teeth so it can no longer have the bite it once did when true racism is exposed. When we label so much of the world as racist, it stops becoming racist to me and I stop paying attention. Another thing that it does is that by putting in a huge number of qualifiers, beyond the original definition, that include the color of one single race (white) to me is on the border of reversing the definition of the word.

As I see it, racism has many faces. Racism can be the in your face derogatory name-flinging, to institutional racism, political racism, economic racism, etc... But these are adjectives, to further define the word racism. When we add all of those adjectives into the actual definition and just use the word "racism" to describe something, then we are diluting it.

Reverse racism. In quotes, none the less. It's own little term, would not make any sense because of the new definition. But it exists. I have done it. I'm not proud, nor am I happy that in my youth I took the low road. Was my racism institutional? Was it political? No. My racism could have little impact beyond the individual I hated. I was pissed at real racism, so I started hating white people. But this is no way to live. So as I grew taller, I also grew wiser and I changed my ways.

Tossing the term around, when speaking with someone who you are trying to get to see from your perspective, is a fantastic way to shut them down and end the conversation. They are instantly on the defensive. And in a lot of cases rightfully so. This is something else that I have learned. I have had many a conversation with folks on the topic of racism, and I found that by simply explaining my side or my perspective without labeling anything that does not need a label, is the best way to get my point across. When I recently had a conversation about affirmative action with another hiring manager (I am one as well). He felt that affirmative action was silly, that he would just hire the best qualified person for the job. After some discussing and without using the "R" word at all, he saw how it was a positive. The long and short of it was that since equal opportunity was in place, it made him honestly have the debate in his own head that race, sex, orientation, disability, etc... was not going to have an effect on his hiring choice. That by making the conscious effort to remove all demographics, and to choose the best fit would in fact be an actual step at removing institutional racism, sexism, etc...

Was he racist to think that affirmative action was silly? No, not if you use the definition from the dictionary. Yes, if you use one of these doublespeak definitions. How would the conversation have gone if I led off with a lecture on institutional racism, or said that he was racist (doublespeak definition) for saying that it was silly? He would have shut down, and in all honesty been offended (rightfully so) by the remark.

In my opinion, racism, by definition is conscious hate. Privilege, access, ignorance, and apathy are exactly what they are and are not inherently racist. But they do indeed have a disproportionate effect on minorities. Trust me, I have lived them. They should be addressed, they should be pursued, and they should be talked about. They way I look at it, is that these privileges do indeed exists, but in and of themselves are not racist. They do systematically, hold back minorities, but for some white dude to live in a decent neighborhood, go to a good school and eventually get a good job is not racist. The fact that I had to work much harder is not racist. What's racist is those who can see it, but refuse to acknowledge it, or work to keep it in place. That is conscious racist hate.