It's the Stupid Racism

Racism won't end until it's confronted.

Racism can't be confronted until it is defined.

Let's start with the definition of racism.

racism -noun
The belief that some races are inherently superior (physically, intellectually, or culturally) to others and therefore have a right to dominate them. In the United States, racism, particularly by whites against blacks, has created profound racial tension and conflict in virtually all aspects of American society. Until the breakthroughs achieved by the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, white domination over blacks was institutionalized and supported in all branches and levels of government, by denying blacks their civil rights and opportunities to participate in political, economic, and social communities.

Now let's define racist:

A person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others

Note, both words are nouns, but one describes an act(racism) and one describes a person (racist). This is very important

The final word we need to define is prejudice:

A hostile opinion about some person or class of persons. Prejudice is socially learned and is usually grounded in misconception, misunderstanding, and inflexible generalizations. In particular, African-Americans have been victims of prejudice on a variety of social, economic, and political levels.

Racism is an action. It's that thing you did not that thing you said.

But I'm NOT A RACIST / HOW DARE YOU."

Thing is they're ALWAYS going to come at it from that point of view, because being called a racist has become more taboo than actually being one. People get more upset about the possibility they might have been called racist than the fact that their actions are racist as hell. They'll harp and linger on all their deeds in the past and what clubs they belong to and who their friends are. They'll START any rebuttal to your first words with that. And in the end you end up talking to yourself or talking to the wind, because they've drawn a crowd to chant the "I AM NOT A RACIST" mantra to the point where any on lookers without reading/listening to the whole thing, think that's what it's all about. Then people start picking sides and - boom- it's all over.

The things that divide us are rooted in sin (greed, pride). We need to be wall breakers instead of wall builders and tear down the wall that divide us. The white privilege mindset is the way of thinking that grows out of having white privilege, from the advantages of being white in America.

In order to overcome racial prejudice we need understand and respect each others differences and experiences. When love and understanding move into our hearts it has the power to remove all forms of hatred. It's time for us to become part of the solution and not be the problem.

I'm not a racist....I'm a Democrat. Not.

A liberal democrat is just as capable of being a racist as a conservative wingnut. I suppose the difference is that the liberal doesn't really think he is a racist and doesn't want to be painted as such. The wingnut, on the other hand, embraces his racism, and indeed wears it like a badge of honor.

Please watch, listen and learn as Tim Wise confronts the stupid racism in this 9 minute video.