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I notice some people are really triggered when I used the word "racist" or "racism", becoming more literal a hardcore Salafi about it. Here's a short thread:
When I speak about racism (that is, institutional discrimination on the basis of "race"), I'm not talking about theory, I'm talking about my lived experience. I'm a stateless Palestinian refugee. Let's break it down:
Races don't exist. That whole idea that human beings can be cleanly segmented into "races", each with common biological features and a common origin - yeah, that's pseudoscience.
Races don't exist - but racism does. Racism is a tool - a technology of power - designed to exclude certain groups of human beings from the central liberal promise of equality, dignity, and equal access to opportunity.
There are two grand directions within human history, one pushing towards equality and one pushing towards supremacism. The rise of the liberal state didn't end this, it only transformed its tools and methods.
The essence of racism, in other words, isn't found in the etymology of the term, but in its function. The essence isn't biology, it's exclusion. Which is the real-world impact and function of racism.
Now, after the disaster of 20th century scientific racism and ethno-nationalism, institutionally discriminating between groups of human beings based upon imagined biology lost favor. So the technology was reinvented using other terms. "Culture" was one.
"Culture" is a notoriously difficult term to define - ask any anthropologist. It's also a notoriously malleable term, which can be used in so many different contexts. So what context do the neo-racists use it in?
"Our culture is superior". "Your culture is inferior". "They're poor because of their culture". "They are refugees because of their culture". "Their women are abused because of culture". "They are ruled by dictators because of culture". "They are terrorists because of culture".
So while biology is too exact a science to tolerate malleable concepts such as race, anthropology isn't as exact a science, allowing them to borrow the term "culture" and replace it into the very same supremacist arguments
Old racists: "Our race is superior, your race is inferior. You can never become superior because this is biologically determined. The best you can do for yourself is to follow our lead and allow us to rule you".
New racists: "Our culture is superior, your culture is inferior. You have a shot at becoming like us if you drop your culture and assimilate into ours."
Not only can you take *most* racial superiority arguments and replace "race" with "culture" - it also makes it seem more benign and common sense. With old racism you're doomed to inferiority. With new racism there's a suggestion that you can "change"
What we're often told about racism is that races are real but it doesn't matter. The truth is, races aren't real and it does matter. Races are sociopolitically constructed categorizations of people, towards very political reasons.
There are people who are upset the moment you use the word racism. Even if you've been a lifelong target of racism, even if has been a big part of your life. Don't let anyone police the language you use to talk about your own life. If you have to use the word "racism", use it.
