Thread by @AndyRichter

As a white, when I hear a statement about whites, before I choose to call it “racism,” I ask myself the following:

Does the statement represent a real history of, or (non-laughable) future potential for:

1. the murder of me or my family
2. the threat of bodily harm

Cont’d

3. another human beings’ legal ownership of me or my family
4. decreased employment opportunity
5. an economic system rigged against me
6. an inferior education for my kids
7. being widely perceived as having a propensity for criminality

Cont’d

8. experiencing housing discrimination
9. the perception of me as an “disloyal other,” which results in a mass incarceration of whites
10. denial of admittance to business and social groups
11. a demonstrably higher likelihood of police violence against whites

Cont’d

12. ongoing campaigns to disenfranchise white voters
13. underrepresentation of whites in elected office & corporate boardrooms
14. institutional neglect towards the safety of my environment (water, soil, air)
15. continuing increase in the mortality rates of white babies

Cont’d

I could go on, but 15 seems like plenty.

If I cannot credibly say yes to any of these questions (and I never can), then I decide the statement doesn’t count as “racism.”

It may be rude, or it may hurt my feelings, but I wouldn’t call it racism. That would be tacky.

(And by the way, I don’t count affirmative action, as I consider it by its other name: “learning to share”.)

Lotta people REALLY hung up on the semantics of this, which is, I think, a product of the imperfection of language...

...so, yes, the statement “white people are bad” does fit a sterile, literal definition of racism.

Just as genocide and ppl online calling me fat are both “unkind.”

So, hooray for the literalists.