[skndr]

Racism is more than just calling out race in a specific dynamic:

..."racism" is defined not only in terms of individual prejudice, but also in terms of a power structure which protects the interests of the dominant culture and actively discriminates against ethnic minorities.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism#Popular_usage

[dragonwriter]

> Racism is more than just calling out race in a specific dynamic

This is a very hotly contested point (one on which there is no clear consensus on the Left and utter rejection ofnthe idea on the Right.)

The “power structure” concept of racism was, historically, a deliberate invention to invalidate the specific idea that black people (the racial group of interest in the context in which the concept was developed) could be racist; it's deeply problematic because the mere adoption of it as a popular viewpoint alters the power structure, creates (or enhances an existing) context in which people in groups perceived to be disadvantaged in a broader context are privileges for that reason, and thus ends up negating its own basic purpose and making itself irrelevant.

It's much more useful to view the specific power dynamics applicable to a particular case as a factor in the significance and impact of racism than to take more generalized power dynamics as an factor in deciding whether there is racism.

[komali2]

My friend and I just had this discussion this morning, because he's having an ongoing argument with his girlfriend, wherein she is arguing that it is impossible to be racist to a white person in America, and he is arguing that that very argument is racist.

The gist is she is using the "power structure" definition of racism, and he is using the "prejudice based on race" definition.

I feel like this difference in definitions is the root of a lot of arguments in modern discourse.