I’m really getting tired of the notion that only white people can be racists. To that end, I present you with the dictionary definition of the term “racism”, from dictionary.reference.com…

rac·ism    (rā’sĭz’əm)  Pronunciation Key
n.  

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

rac’ist adj. & n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition - Cite This Source
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Now that that’s out of the way, tell me where the “white” or Caucasian race is mentioned. You don’t see it in the definition of “racism” as given by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, do you? If you did, then wouldn’t that be an example of the second definition listed?

I’m fairly sure that, in this day and age at least, we all can pretty much agree that the belief identified in the first definition given above is erroneous. No race is superior to others. Are we not all humans, regardless of our race?

American Conservatives believe in many of the principles laid down by the founders of our nation, and in particular we hold the Declaration of Independence in some high regard. In fact, we believe in and affirm that one of the founding principles of our nation can be found in these words…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…

Believing that, we must reject the belief found in the first definition of racism given above. And so I now turn to the second definition of the term, “discrimination or prejudice based on race”. You and I both know that there’s a lot of that in today’s world. Accusations of racism fly whenever a conservative criticizes Barack Obama it seems — even to the point that the very word “socialism” is treated by the media as a “code word” for black. We’re told by some even that if Barack Obama loses the presidential election it will be evidence that the American electorate can’t transcend racism, rather than a rejection of the policies that he espouses.

Here we are, more than forty five years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uttered these famous words still obsessed with racism in politics…

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Dr. King was dreaming of a day when discrimination based upon race would no longer be a factor in how people judge each other. And yet today’s multiculturalists tell us that we must be aware of race. They tell us that it’s wrong to seek to not discriminate based upon race because that’s merely a denial of our fundamental makeup. They tell us that we must reject the notion of a colorblind society because such a concept enforces racism rather than ends it.

I categorically reject those arguments. There is only one way that you can end discrimination based upon race, and that is to stop discriminating based upon race. Any multicultural program that requires us to focus on the unconscious or “cultural” racism of white people (a racial distinction), while denying the possibility that attitudes that discriminate against white people are possible (for an example of such educational material, see this lovely “art project”) is, by the second definition given above plain and simply racist.

I’ll say it again, just to make it clear.

There is only one way that you can end discrimination based upon race, and that is to stop discriminating based upon race.

http://perrinelson.com/2008/10/24/1264.aspx

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