If you use the Internet like I do, you might have noticed the neologism “racist” being thrown around a lot, particularly on “social media”. Many are confused about the meaning of this word; often it appears to be arbitrary, and have no meaning. It seems to be applicable to anyone, living or dead. How can you tell if you, or anybody around you is a “racist”? Here’s my foolproof method, and it’s guaranteed to work, 100% of the time.
Anyone who calls someone a racist, is a racist.
How could someone know what a racist does, unless they were a racist themselves?
A dentist doesn’t call another person a dentist, unless they actually are one.
A Buddhist doesn’t call another person a Buddhist, unless they actually are one.
A psychiatrist doesn’t call another person a psychiatrist, unless they actually are one.
GET IT?
If a person “hates black people”, then say they hate black people. Same goes for white, Mexican, Jewish, or any other race/ethnicity. Actually, DON’T say that. Don’t say anything at all.
Hating a particular tribe of humans isn’t “racist”; it’s anti-social. What do we do with behaviors that go against society? “Shame” them, right?
WRONG. We SHUN them. We pay them no attention, and stop associating with that person in all regards, and if they don’t get the picture and change their ways, tough titties. We don’t “shame” them, thus drawing attention to them, teaching the methods of their hatred, and possibly driving others to their side. We don’t make a big deal about how wrong they are, to make ourselves look superior. We stick our noses in the air and shun them, before never speaking of or to them again.
I’ve been shunned by people for bad jokes. You’re telling me that you possess the moral clairvoyance to peer inside another human being’s soul, and declare them a “racist”? Even though we don’t know each other, I can state this unequivocally; you don’t! You’re just judging people, and you’re not a judge!
You don’t even know what show this came from (it wasn’t that great anyway).
Judges have to know the law inside and out before they put on the robe or pick up the gavel. They deal in evidence, and absolutes; not abstracts like “good” and “evil”. A human being cannot be evil- a human being can only do evil things. Calling a person “evil” absolves them of all personal responsibility for their deeds. I don’t care who you are; you’ve never encountered an evil person in your life. Even the worst serial killer on record isn’t evil; they just did unimaginably evil shit, and for that, we rely on judges to properly remove them from our society. We don’t make sure everyone is on the “same page” by giving out every single horrific detail of the aforementioned evil deeds, thus teaching everyone about them.
Also by this rule, a human being cannot be “good”. A human being can only do good things. Again, get it?
You can only be properly judged by what you do, not what you think. No one can judge you by what you think- no one knows what you think unless you act upon your thoughts, and they become deeds. No one knows what you are thinking. They can only know their perception of what you are thinking, based on their perception of you. That’s all.
Ergo, no one but a judge can truly judge you. And a judge is unlikely to call you a “racist”. What does that tell you about the word and its veracity?
Where did the word “racism” come from? Was it Leon Trotsky, Marxist founder of the Red Army? Or…
The Oxford English Dictionary’s first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902.
- Pratt was railing against the evils of racial segregation.
- Segregating any class or race of people apart from the rest of the people kills the progress of the segregated people or makes their growth very slow. Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism.
- Although Pratt might have been the first person to inveigh against racism and its deleterious effects by name, he is much better-remembered for a very different coinage: Kill the Indian…save the man.
- “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one,” Pratt said. “In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” [source]
If that’s correct, then the first person to call out racism… was a racist. Just like I said. Foolproof.
I don’t know about you, but I’d avoid using the term.
People always get the wrong idea, and no real problems get solved.
Get it?
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