Updated April 22, 2021
Was former President Donald Trump being a racist by proclaiming “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” In response, The View co-host Kelly Osbourne trying to refute him said: “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?” When someone tweeted to comedian Steve Martin “How do you spell “lasonia”? He jokingly tweeted back “It depends if you are in an African American neighborhood or an Italian restaurant.” Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. tweeted in 2012 “Jeremy Lin is a good player, but all the hype is because he’s Asian.” All of these statements are examples of racial prejudice but does that mean that the people who made them are racist?
The traditional definition of a racist is an individual who judges another individual’s humanity on the color of their skin. In other words, an individual who does not have white skin is judged not to be a human being, they are judged to be a sub-human inferior species similar to monkeys and apes. The definition of prejudice is (1) a preconceived judgment or opinion (2) an adverse opinion formed or an action taken without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge.
The two, racist and prejudice, are commonly thought to be the same or synonymous with each other. This is a common mistake that all of us are prone to make because of the racism that has existed throughout American history. To be true to America’s founding principle, “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, and justify slavery, the lie that people of color were sub-human, genetically closer to apes and not equal to full-blooded white-skinned human beings had to be accepted as fact!
Jim Crow Laws March, white parents did not want their kids attending school with sub-human negro kids
Even after fighting the Civil War, a war that to date has the highest American casualty rate at over 600,000 lives lost, to end slavery in America and the passage of the 14th amendment that gave former slaves full American citizenship, racism was used to justify segregation and Jim Crow laws. Traditional American racists adhered to the same ideology as Adolf Hitler’s Nazi’s, that people of white skin were genetically superior to sub-human people with colored skin.
The only way American Whites could sleep at night knowing of the legal Jim Crow segregation taking place in the south, and the economic segregation taking place all over America was acceptance of the racist theory of American Blacks being genetically inferior to American Whites. Within America’s pre-Civil Rights racial practices 2 things were actually happening but through practice got blended into one, creating the problem we face today.
The 2 things that got blended into 1 was racism and 2 prejudice creating the practice of racial prejudice which most confuse with racism. Racism is the designation of sub-human status for non-white individuals. Prejudice is the behavior of the designator after racism is designated. John is black and inferior (racism) so therefore he must be kept from socially interacting with white people (prejudiced behavior). After 200 plus years of the lie of American racism and prejudice, the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., moved America to proclaim in word and deed the lie of racism and the truth of the humanity of all people regardless of skin color. It was the concluding act to what the founding fathers started when they first proclaimed “that all men are created equal”.
Unfortunately, after 200 plus years of conscious acceptance of the lie of racism into the American psyche, the now conscious non-acceptance of racism into the American psyche is at best an unconscious myth acceptance of racism, and at worst an unconscious fact acceptance of racism that’s responsible for the racial prejudice expressed daily by all Americans white or black.
Unconscious racial prejudice is strong among all people. Studies dating back to the 1940s and current online viral videos show children at early stages of intelligence, white or black when shown a picture of a black person and a white person, and then asked to select the good person, all children both black and white select the white person. This is an example of the systemic racism that exists in America, hidden systematic bias so ingrained within the system it happens automatically not relying on any individual to commit the racism, the system itself does it.
Acknowledgment of this is important because people are confusing racial prejudice, prejudice sayings, and prejudice acts as racism coming from racist hearted people. Any of us can exhibit racial prejudice behavior and not be racist. This racial prejudice behavior could be due to racial ignorance or from the effects of constant exposure to the systemic racist environment all Americans have evolved in.
We must be careful not to have double standards when it comes to racism
So when someone says something considered racist, how can we determine whether or not they are racist? We should apply the traditional definition of racism and if what they have said meets it, then they are a racist. Applying the traditional definition and not having a new “2018” definition of racism, as was recently suggested to me by a clueless TV talk show host, is a MUST for future harmonious race relations in America.
Years ago non-homosexuals who had no issues with homosexuality commonly referred to homosexual men as f*ggs and homosexual women as d*kes. Exposure of non-homosexuals to homosexuality issues and concerns caused them to start to refer to homosexual men as gay and homosexual women as a lesbian. Today non-homosexuals understand the terms f*gg and d*ke is considered derogatory, they didn’t know it at the time. The Atlanta Braves baseball team had as part of their logo a caricature of an Indian that everyone thought appropriate for years. When Native American groups suggested that it was not, the Braves changed the logo because they were ignorant of the racist overtones the caricature projected.
To now create a new so-called 2018 definition of a racist that declares saying and doing racial prejudice things makes you a racist, will mean we will never conquer racism! How could it be possible when you’re having a continuous cycle of shame and persecution? A new racist will be created every day based on what somebody inadvertently ignorantly said.
The standard of did the person say anything that implied that one race was genetically inferior to another must be upheld. However, having not met that test does not let the individual saying racially prejudice things off the hook.
If a person says that Haiti and Africa are “shit-hole” countries, that person should be asked if they mean that people from Haiti and Africa are an inferior sub-human species. If that person’s reply is no but they say they meant that people in those countries are filthy and not educated, then that individual should be criticized loudly and aggressively as an ignorant uninformed person saying racially prejudice things, but they should not be accused of being a racist person. To do otherwise is putting the potency of the racist label at severe risk.
Currently, the label of racist is the modern-day equivalent of a Scarlett Letter. One rightfully losses respectability, income, and friendships overnight as an indication of how opposed American society is to racism. Almost everyone runs from the label not just because of the personal harm it can do, but also because America has pretty much conquered and defeated the very idea of racism. Meaning 90% of Americans buy into the principle that we are all genetically equal human beings, regardless of race. Even the remaining 10% of racists will ask you to step outside if you call them a racist.
The Charlottesville rallies showed the damage being done by recklessly applying the racist label. It was the first time klu klux klansman proudly showed their faces as they spoke their racist phrases and burned their torches. When asked why the change they replied that “all white people are called racist these days so why not wear it proudly”.
More damaging than losing the impact of a racist label is the lost potential for enlightenment that racist labeling eliminates. I cannot get a person who says Africa is a shit-hole country to see the error of their ways by starting the conversation off calling them a racist, especially if they think they are not because they are abiding by the traditional definition. There’s no way to express to the person that there is both a literal adherence to the definition and a spiritual adherence to the definition. Without dialogue, it’s impossible to explain that although they may truly believe that Africans are equal human beings, to say they are all filthy and uneducated is the fruit of the racist tree and an example of racial prejudice.
None of us are God and we lack his ability of discernment and the power to look into someone’s mind or heart. We must give everyone the benefit of doubt when they say or do something that is questionable as racist. Unless there actions or words say unequivocally affirmatively yes that person or those people are genetically inferior to white human beings, THEY ARE NOT A RACIST. They are guilty of racist behavior and racial prejudice most likely due to insensitivity, ignorance, and unfortunately for political expedience, but not a racist heart!
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