Who Gets To Define Racism?

I am often accused of being racist.

Occasionally, this accusation comes from a person of color.  When it does, I take it very seriously.  As a someone raised in a white supremacist society, I realize I have racial prejudices and habits of which I am unaware.  I appreciate these corrections.  Know better, do better.

However, most of these accusations of racism come from white people who, enraged by something I’ve posted or written about white history, culture, behavior, or language, accuse me of being anti-white.  They remind me that racism is “prejudice, discrimination or antagonism toward others on the basis of race.”  By this definition, my antagonism toward certain white people is racism.  They argue my support of affirmative action, reparations and the like is racist since these discriminate against white people.  They think my statements condemning white society as white supremacist are prejudicial, so I am a racist.

When I suggest their definition of racism is inadequate and obsolete, they become even more angry because…

1. Their definition is the dictionary definition of racism and therefore the only acceptable definition of racism.
2. To discuss racism, all others must accept and abide by their definition.
3. All other definitions are perversions of this pristine definition.
4. Their definition can never be changed.

Ironically, those defending the “dictionary” definition of racism know little about the history of the word they so vehemently defend.  The words “racist” or “racism” are fairly recent inventions.  They don’t show up in written English language documents until the 1930s and were originally used to criticize Nazi philosophy that categorized certain races as inferior to others. However, racism doesn’t show up in the Oxford English dictionary until 1989 where it was defined as “the theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race” and “the belief in the superiority of a particular race.”

If you’re shocked to discover “racism” wasn’t in a dictionary until 1989, I was, too.  Indeed, I didn’t believe this Wikipedia notation initially, but have read widely enough to confirm this fact.  In my research, I was also reminded that prior to advent of computers and the internet, revising dictionaries was a tedious effort that often took many years.  Dictionary definitions always lagged behind usage.  While the word “racism” began to be used more widely in the late 60s, it was largely an academic term.  It is unlikely that you and I used the term “racism” in conversation until the 1980s.  Why?  Because a belief in the superiority of white people was still so normative in the United States that a word critical of this belief only grudgingly became common.

Even when a definition of racism appeared, it was not initially all that helpful.  It used words like theory or belief and did not define behavior.  The definition of racist and racism gradually broadened as it was applied.  The Oxford English dictionary expanded their definition to read: “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”  This redefining attempted to move racism from the theory to practice.  However, it was careful to connect practice with supremacist theory.

Notice racism – despite what my accusers claim – is not simply prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism toward another race, but those acts or attitudes based on a belief of one’s own superiority. When white people separate the first three characteristics from this underlying belief, they attempt to make racism any negative statement about another group of people rather than something philosophical and systemic.  White people often misquote the definition.  This allows them to claim “anyone can be racist” even when there is little evidence of black or brown people arguing for their own racial superiority.  While prejudice, discrimination and antagonism are certainly possible in any person, racism requires a deeper philosophical commitment.

More recently, many critics have argued these broader definitions are still inadequate, that they imply racism is solely an individual opinion or act.  In 2020, Merriam Webster added, “the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another” as the second definition of racism.  This revision acknowledged the power differentials that make racism in America a primarily white problem.  By this definition, the power to enforce my prejudice, discrimination or antagonism is a necessary ingredient for racist behavior.

This is a very important distinction.  People of color have long been antagonistic toward white people and rightly so.  For their own safety, they’ve held prejudicial opinions about all white people.  The caveat that “not all white people are evil” was dangerous assumption.  Prejudice and antagonism were legitimate responses to how they have been treated by white people and the systems white people created.  However, without any power to enforce such an opinion, calling this attitude racism seems rather silly.

It is equally silly to call a white person racist when they are critical of white supremacy and systemic racism.  I have never claimed any group of people are biologically or culturally superior.  Indeed, I reject all such arguments.  My criticism is not based on a commitment to the superiority of any specific group.  My criticism has been of systems – and their defenders – that oppress, discriminate, and abuse others based on such assumptions.  In the United States, this has almost universally been a white problem.  No reasonable definition – past or present – would define my criticism of other white people as racist.

Those white people who argue most vehemently for the broadest possible definition of racism reinforce the argument that racism is always rooted in beliefs in superiority.  In insisting that their definition is the correct definition of racism, they imply definitions created by white people are inherently superior to those offered by people of color.  They demonstrate how the mechanisms of defining words – as with many other systems in our society – have long been used to protect and empower white people.  Those who have been the most often victimized by even their broad definition of racism are not allowed to offer their perspectives.  These white people are incensed that society is finally listening to those voices and adjusting our definitions accordingly.

The adjustments being made by Oxford English and Merriam Webster dictionaries represent changes in understanding and usage around the terms “racist” and “racism.”  They demonstrate a new commitment to listen to all voices in defining terms.  They are designed to help us better identify and describe what they define.  Those who oppose such revisions are suspect.  Using an obsolete or incomplete definition of racism to sustain power – ironically – is racist.  It is an attempt by white supremacy to deflect attention from its own ugliness by suggesting others are guilty of its crimes.  I, for one, am done with such arguments.

Who gets to define racism?

Millions of us do.

The days when white supremacists get all the votes are over.