What is the definition of RACISM?

I am reading again and sometimes reading can be dangerous. I am currently reading So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. I think this is a book that everyone should read. It is in an easy to read format that helps facilitate the conversation that we all should be having about RACISM.

She describes her experiences with this conflict fraught conversation. Oluo uses the definition of “RACISM-a prejudice against someone based on race, when those  prejudices are reinforced by systems of power.” She allows that another definition of RACISM is used that leaves out “reinforced by systems of power.” This is important.

It is important because I have often heard the word racist hurdled at Blacks and other people of color as an attack when the conversations about race and RACISM heats up. Yes, all people can be prejudice, yet all people do not have power to reinforce this prejudice. This power, the power to reinforce prejudice, is in the domain of those who have white skin. This power, is what has constructed this notion of race and the racist systems that followed.

Race was constructed so that white males could maintain and keep power. This social construct that separates people by the basis of skin color, according to Oluo, “. . .RACISM was designed to support economic and social systems for those on top.”

The problem with this definition of RACISM is that it offends those whites that would immediately say “I’m not a racist.” While, I am about to make a lot of people angry, I hold the opinion that all white people are racist. The degree of their RACISM may be different, nonetheless all are racist. Those degrees in my estimation are recovering, unconscious or overt. These are the choices.

I would define a recovering racist as one who understands that they are racist and is working to help dismantle the systems of RACISM and white supremacy in our country, and the world. They are reading books like this one by Ijeoma Oluo. They are having conversations with their white friends and are willing to put themselves on the line for a different world reality.

An unconscious racist is one who would be the first to deny their racism, because they have Black friends or are married to someone of a different race or have Black children. This sort of RACISM is the most harmful because they move around in the world cutting Blacks with barbs of micro-aggression that they would believe are innocent comments or actions. “Your hair is not professional enough; you’re not so bad because you are not so dark.” (said to me once). They walk around in the world denying that they have white privilege. This is the audience that should be reading this book. This group can become recovering if and only if they wake up.

I know I don’t have to define an overt racist for you, but for the sake of clarity, I would say that an overt racist is one who espouses hateful rhetoric and participates in marches and rallies to promote the cause of white supremacy and the domination of whites in society.

The definition of RACISM that includes the issues of power and the realization that one is racist is important. Recovery is only possible with acknowledgment.