> > From dictionary.com:
> >
> > rac·ism
> > n.
> > 1. The belief that race accounts for differences in
> human character
> > or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
> > 2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
>
> The word "and" narrows definition number 1 rather nicely (at least I
> like it). Thus one may objectively investigate whether various human
> groups exhibit statistical differences in various ways without
> automatically being "racist".
> Lee
How does one tell the difference between "people that discriminate based on
the cultural attributes of a large cross-section of blacks" and those that
"discriminate blacks from whites because they believe that they are
genetically superior"?
Does the term racist apply to both?
If so, then nothing negative at all can ever be said of "blacks"
statistically "i.e. black cops that use racial profiling" without being
labeled racist (neat trick for a black cop to be racist of blacks).
This is the big reason I think that a large number of people don't want
others looking this closely at definitions, its not in the interest of the
PC crowd to clarify the issues. My vote is to scrap definition #2 because it
confuses this issue beyond need and I think number 1 handles the definition
just fine. Occam's razor and all....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:04 MDT