this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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Glad to see a lot of the comments denying this idea.
Racism is racism, fuck racists of any kind.
Yeah, there has been a movement in recent decades to redefine racism, sexism, etc. As only applying to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination by a person from a dominant group toward people from a marginalized group. To some extent I get that--that is why anyone ever started caring about racism etc.--and language evolves. If we as a society decide that is the only set of valid definitions, I'll go with it, because I care more about the struggle for equality than about the words used in that process.
That said, my issue with this usage is that it is imprecise and bundles some extra judgments. This use of racism requires an extra assessment of the power dynamics between the groups each of the parties belongs to (and sometimes identifying that is a quagmire itself). I'd prefer keeping those judgments separate. For example, maybe responding to this racist troll by saying that some kind of racism cause and deepen harm a lot more than others, and he is ignoring that fact due to his own racism.
What they are talking about is systematic racism, which defines racism + its proximity to power. IE the system cannot be really racist to white people if white people run the system. However its the system not specifically the individuals in the system that are racist.
I believe an example would be something like if you have a white sounding name you are more likely to be interviewed over someone with a non white name all other factors being held the same. At least in say the US.
Idiots like the person responding in the image coopted the definition to apply it to racism as a whole so they could say things like "I am not racist because i do not have systematic power but you are racist simply because of the colour of your skin, even if I am saying far more vile things and judging you based on nothing more than skin colour."
Racism is discrimination based on a persons skin color regardless of what you look like.
Systematic racism is more what the system does to those outside of the agreed upon "norm" inside of a system.
There is and should be distinctions in these definitions but the internet ruins everything.
But the thing is the “norm” is different in different places. If you go as far as saying it doesn’t exist in certain directions, someone is going to get defensive. And they’re right, sort of. Maybe it’s just arguing terminology but to say it doesn’t exist is wrong and someone will argue it.
But once you get to the differences in impact, that seems a lot more clear cut, and with no absolutes for people to argue