What Is Racism? John McWhorter
What is racism? If I sit here and I tell you that racism is discriminatory feelings or actions against an individual who you feel is inferior, I’m not telling you anything new. I don’t think we need to have a conference about that. I think I want to jump right to what’s considered step 2 in this discussion, which is that racism is not only a matter of personal racism but is also a matter of what was once called societal racism. After that, the renewal of the term was institutional racism. Today we’re encouraged to call it white supremacy. All three of those terms mean the same thing—societal racism, institutional racism, white supremacy—the idea being that it’s not only a matter of somebody drawing something on a wall or somebody calling someone a dirty name, or not allowing someone to become a lawyer; but that we have a system in this country where there are disparities in the achievements of people that correlate with race, and that the reason for that is racism, and that that’s the kind of racism that we need to be focusing on. Now, Racism 101, as in discrimination, hatred of others: I think we all agree we don’t need to think about whether or not that’s a bad thing, and it needs to be battled most certainly, including the sorts of things that have happened on this campus recently, including what happened to Tamir Rice, including that if a black person is in a doctor’s office, often a doctor subconsciously thinks that black people tolerate pain more easily than white people. These things need to be not just talked about but battled. However, if we’re talking about racism in a broader sense, if we’re anxious to say, as many people are, that no, it’s not just that kind of racism, which frankly is kind of easy, but also institutional racism that we need battle. I’m really worried about how we use that term these days. I think that our use of the term institutional racism is counterproductive, and I don’t just mean that it makes people angry; I mean that it ends up denying people who’ve been left behind the help they need, and this is why: institutional racism refers to the fact that there are disparities in society, that black people have less of various things than white people. I’m oversimplifying in saying that it’s only about black and white, but I’m sure you understand why. Now, I’ll say that to call person-to-person racism and institutional racism variations on the same thing is very dangerous. It’s counterproductive in the way that I mentioned. When we say “institutional racism” it’s an extended use of the word racism, and what we’re referring to is the disparities. That’s different from something being written on a wall. So it’s a different kind of racism. Maybe we’re calling it racism, but we know that it’s not the same thing. But
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Racism and Antisemitism
