Prejudice, racism and bigotry are all different things, and I need you all to learn, study and memorize the definitions before you go around throwing those words around all willy nilly as if they are interchangeable. Allow me to assist.
Racism is the only of those three words were there is a power dynamic involved. Here in the United States, white people have historically had that power and continue to do so today. They use that power to create and to uphold systems of inequity and inequality.
(Also, inequity and inequality don't mean the same thing and are not interchangeable either. learn those definitions too. )
Racism is the reason we need things like HBCUs and affirmative action, because the way education systems, hiring systems and earning systems were set up in this country, the only ones meant to benefit were white men. Racism is a power structure. There has to be a power structure
for racism to exist. Period. There is no getting away from that distinction. And no matter how hard 6Fs try to claim otherwise, racism is not the same as bigotry or prejudice.
prejudice is when you pre-judge a group of people (it's literally in the name!) without having any knowledge of them and without bothering to try to know them. There is no power dynamic involved. You can be prejudiced against an ethnic group or a gender group or any other
thing of that nature. For instance, I am prejudiced against people who commit egregious grammar errors. If I read your tweets and they are full of "he should of" and shit like that? I am prejudiced against you. I don't give a fuck what else you say. I am judging you to not be
a great written communicator because you don't even have the basics down. I don't care what else you write.
Bigotry is the big brother of prejudice. If prejudice is the script, bigotry is the actor. Bigots act on their prejudices in any number of ways. Perhaps it's discriminatory behavior or even aggressive behavior. Bigotry is the behavioral component to prejudice.
Bigotry does not require a power structure to exist. It only requires an established prejudice.
I really hope this helps. If you have questions, please let me know.
