Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
You didn't ask for compelling examples, you asked for one example, so I gave you one, in the (fruitless) hope that you would answer my questions. If really want to have a semantic argument, my examples are going to pointless, because they are going to be examples of what you have already decided is not "racism."
Why does it matter so much to you that the word "racism" not be used broadly? You've been pretty clear that it's because you see "racism" as really bad, and you believe that you personally are not bad in that way. It's about your need to feel innocent in a flawed world.
I don't feel guilty about my role in hiring. There are lots of problems in the world that I haven't addressed. But part of what is insidious about societal racism is that lots of people, lots of whites, can act without conscious bigotry and yet some people, lots of blacks, are systematically harmed by it.
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Let me correct myself. I don't think you have any examples.
I answered your argument, and then some. You didn't get the answer you'd like.
I do not feel any guilt, and I am fully aware of just how flawed I am. Half of my persona is laughing at myself.
The expensive use of the term is intellectually lazy and opportunistic. The people who wish to so use it cannot even define it. Adder says everyone is racist. This is preposterous, of course, and proven so with the simple observation this would render a child born right now racist because it was born into a racist society.
You can't just decide to change words' meanings and then not even be able to provide a coherent and credible definition of what the new expanded use of the term includes. Or argue something frivolous like, "it covers everyone." Just because you want to be able to say "everyone is racist" doesn't entitle you to change language and mangle the classical definition of a word to suit your desire to use the word the way you want to.
It is correct to assert we live in a racist society. To assert everyone is racist is soft-headed.
