Racism: One Word, Two Meanings

'Racism' is one of the most lazily used and ill-defined words in the modern lexicon. 

 

We're all aware that this term/accusation is now tossed around like an ad-hominem, to smear/marginalize opposition, with reckless abandon. . but that's not exactly what I seek to address, here. 

 

The purpose of this piece is to hopefully convey just what a convoluted mess this word has become, essentially an unnatural pairing of two concepts under a single umbrella, in hopes that the reader might start to approach it a bit differently. 

 

The two current meanings and uses of the term 'racism', both of which can be found as the foremost definition in different dictionaries, are approximately as follows:

 

#1. Feeling or expressing  hatred, anger, incivility or oppression towards members of a race because of their racial lineage/background

#2. Believing a race to be fundamentally superior to another race, culturally or intellectually, in a singular context, or broadly speaking

 

The fact that these two very different concepts have become so inexorably entwined, so tangled and conflated, is a sin against language. . . they're far from the same thing. One can fit the former definition and not the latter, just as one can be of the latter and not the former. One does not by necessity lead to the other. This was a linguistic masterstroke, by those cultural-marxist magis, who so effectively shape (or promote/suppress) our language with the aim of shaping our thinking and worldview. . . but it needs to be recognized for what it is: poison, in the collective cultural/linguistic well.

 

Up until very recently, every thinker worthy to be called such was firmly in this second camp of 'racist' definition. They believed, based perhaps upon personal experiences, science, historical precedent, and intuitive logic, that races differed significantly, not only culturally (nuture) but innately (nature), and that denial of this obvious fact would be sheer lunacy. Yet, I'd argue that virtually none of these men would simultaneously belong to the former definition: I don't believe they held hatred in their hearts towards men of other backgrounds, but rather just accepted it as a matter of simple fact that they were different. I believe they felt that perhaps certain of these differences could lead to a people/race being more adept to surviving and thriving in the world at large, but I don't believe the men that reached these conclusions saw this as a grounds to hate. . . and in fact, I think the majority of these men would consider it a silly leap from recognition of racial differences, to feeling hatred or animosity as a result.  

 

Only recently, in the modern age, has the second type come to the forefront. Only over the past few decades would you be able to find many examples of a man hating another man solely because of his racial designation. As mentioned above, this hate may not even be accompanied by any scientific or factual grounding with regards to biological racial differences, or even an in-depth understanding of cultural differences, making it (in my opinion) one of the strangest ideological developments in human history. Ironically, this type of racism is probably felt and expressed less often by whites than by racial minorities, but it certainly exists on both sides of the fence. 

 

This frankenstein of a term causes men who might otherwise be willing to have the testicular fortitude to face up to uncomfortable truths about racial differences to shy away from doing so, for fear of being grouped in with men who scream racial slurs, and genuinely wish the worst for entire subsets of people. 

 

These two definitions of the concept/idea of racism are worlds apart. We need to start thinking and speaking in a more clear, concise, efficient and accurate manner, and resist this muddying of the waters. A healthy and accurate worldview is only capable of arising from true clarity . When we allow our language to be muddied and imprecise, our thinking soon follows suit, and our way of life/being follows thereafter, ending up equally muddied and confused, with serious ramifications. 

 

Seek clarity of thought and expression!