Clearing Some Stuff Up About Race, POC, Diversity and Racism

I didn’t know the background behind the term appreciation but I still feel that it’s accurate to this usage. The definitions of words change with time and I feel like the history of this word/phrase was forgotten as it changed, I’ve only seen it used in a positive light (as to actually appreciate cultures and not excuse appropriation). I am a little confused about your point though, is there a positive version of cultural appropriation or not? Could you PM me about it so I can understand better? Sorry about the confusion.

In fact, there’s a difference between systemic or systematic racism and racism in general. The dictionary definition of racism is simply racial prejudice. People have tried to alter the definition in recent times to undermine the effects of racism towards white people, which is awful.

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It’s called that because it doesn’t just cover racism, but multiple types of discrimination.

Also, since when did US law become the standard by which we judge the validity of words? You have an extremely US-centric view. Just because white people arent systematically oppressed in the US, it doesn’t mean there aren’t places in the world where they are… and by the country’s law no less. The US doesn’t just get to choose what words mean based on their personal issues.

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I’m using the US as an example because I live there and I’m not about to make assumptions about the laws of other countries I dont know about

Yet people constantly use the US as an example as if there aren’t people being evicted from farms throughout the world by governments for simply being white. That’s systemic racism at its prime.

I hate this reductionary nature of the left at the moment. People like to overly politicise words - sexism exists towards both men and women. Why not racism? The etymology is almost identical. People are putting their own spin on a word which means “racial prejudice” in order to undermine racism against white people and pretend it “doesn’t happen” or it isn’t a big deal. In fact, it is.

If systemic racism were the only type of racism, individual acts of hate wouldn’t be classed as racism towards any race, as they’d be individual and not a system at large.

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Or do you deny that black people can be racist to southeast Asians, for example? If they can… that’s interesting because there’s no black system oppressing or being prejudiced against southeast Asians

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I just wanna say that I mostly agree with you, but I take slight issue with your first point. I would ask you what the difference is between discrimination and racism? If they both mean the same thing why do we have two separate terms? Is one a microcosm of the other? I understand that we conflate the two in everyday language (I do it too and I’m not about to stop) but I pointed out the differences so that people could stop doing your second point (The racism against white people thing). We can agree to disagree cause you’re technically not wrong. We just have a different understanding of things.

We have three separate terms. Racism, discrimination and prejudice. Discrimination and prejudice are terms which transcend race. You can discriminate against someone for anything. Age, eye colour, hair colour. Anything. Furthermore, discrimination is an act. You discriminate by barring someone from doing someone or treating people differently as a result. Prejudice is also a term which can be used for anything. You can be prejudiced towards someone for having freckles. However, you can be prejudiced without actively doing anything to discriminate against the person simply by thinking they’re less. Finally, racism is specifically talking about discrimination and prejudice (both because you can be racist without actively discriminating against someone) specifically for race and ethnicity

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But then we have more than three words for “big”. We have about 20. If we didn’t, we’d basically be living in 1984 times right now. We don’t get rid of words because they’re similar. We list them in a thesaurus

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I’m not gonna argue because it seems you didn’t read my point. I pointed out the clear differences between the two. The farmers you speak of are farming on stolen land. They have a right to be upset over being kicked out but the natives have a right to be pissed too. Their ancestors set up shop in a foreign land and decided to put the existing people out. History is history and it can’t be changed. I assume you’re talking about South Africa and that entire nation was just freed not even a full century ago from Apartheid. A system in which the wealthy white minority held dominance and set themselves “apart” from the disenfranchised black majority.

There are clear differences because discrimination isn’t specifically talking about race. Racism is. All racism is discrimination. Not all discrimination is racism.

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Like;
Age discrimination
Disability discrimination
Sex discrimination
Class discrimination

I had a professor that said there’s no such things as synonyms. Though two words might have the same definition, they carry different weights and meanings. The example he used was the differences betweeen smart and clever. The two words have very similar meaning but they carry different purposes and implications.

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And I’m telling you that they’re different. Discrimination is not specifically talking about race. Racism is.

The dictionary definition lists three types of discrimination:

the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

Also as I said, TREATMENT. Discrimination is an act. You can be racist without treating someone differently if you go home and write racist things in your diary.

I understand your point but, if that’s the case then black people in the West can be racist towards white people.

And they can. They cannot, however, be systematically racist to white people in the West, since white people are the majority in power.

Unless you’re talking about specific communities in which white people are killed or find themselves threatened to stay in their houses for their race. It happens! And since a community is a system (though smaller than a government), they are systemically oppressed too

Not saying you’re wrong. That’s another reason why I used the US specifically. I’m aware of those instances you speak of but I’m not educated enough on those places.

Which is why it would be incorrect to try to define a word by only the US. I mean, try being a white Christian and going to certain areas of Luton in England - where the word “racism” originated