What Should “Racism” Mean?

[Scuba]

http://weeklysift.com/2014/02/17/what-should-racism-mean/

There’s a type of faux scandal that’s been happening … well, I haven’t exactly kept track, but it seems like there’s a new one every month or two. They all fit this pattern: President Obama does something that symbolically asserts his status as president, and the right-wing press gets outraged by how he’s “disrespecting” something-or-other related to the presidency. So, for example, in January, 2010 this photo caused FoxNation.com to ask whether Obama was “disrespecting the Oval Office” by putting his feet up on the antique desk.

?w=500&h=333

Of course, it didn’t take long to uncover similar photos of previous presidents, none of which had raised any particular outrage at the time. But everybody forgot again, and so we had an almost identical flap last September. “This just makes me furious,” one woman tweeted. “He was raised so badly.”

...

Other such “scandals” involve the First Lady: Did you know that Michelle had the audacity to wear an expensive gown to a recent state dinner, like first ladies have been doing, well, forever? Compare to this 2005 WaPo column in which Laura Bush is said to look “regal” — and that’s a compliment. Until 2009, the First Lady was supposed to look regal. Remember Jackie Kennedy? But when Michelle dresses up, she’s Marie Antoinette.



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So here’s the $64,000 question: Is that racist? It depends on what you think racist means. Conservatives will not only answer the question “No”, they’ll be insulted that you even raised it (and will probably launch into their canned everybody-who-disagrees-with-Obama-is-a-racist-to-you-people riff). That’s because conservatives have adopted a very restricted definition of racism: Racism is conscious hatred towards people of another race.

[Autumn]

1. I was furious when I saw a picture of bush with his feet

on Al Gores desk in the Oval office right after the supreme court appointed him. I'm mostly white so in my case it wasn't racism, I just hated bush and I'm still pissed he was ever in that office.

[rock]

2. Well, it does mean unjustified discrimination of a race

usually placing that race in an inferior category. And thus that's probably what it should mean.

[redqueen]

3. Bigots love it when the definition of their bigotry is so narrowly defined

that they can get away with displaying it as long as they're careful.