Thread by @keikoinboston

1. I’ve been wondering for a while about the etymology of the the term “neoracism” which I started seeing with increasing frequency in 2020.

This thread goes over what I found when I attempted to trace the origin of the term. 🧵 1/26

2. I haven’t been able to find a definitive definition of the new usage of “neoracism” but it appears to be a recent semantic change of the critical theory term “neo-racism” used since the 1970s to refer to “cultural racism”.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_…
oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/o…

3. "A Dictionary of Critical Theory” published by Oxford University Press credits the term to French philosopher Étienne Balibar saying that the term refers to “racism without race” and “emerged in the 1970s”.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tie…

4.

”Whereas racism used to be premised on the idea of race as biological heredity, now in the postcolonial era it tends to be focused on ‘cultural differences’. …

5.

… It surfaces in debates about immigration, assimilation, and multiculturalism and although its tone tends to be respectful its intent is always to preserve the pillars of racial segregation both ideologically and practically. "

6. The Dictionary of Critical Theory's recommended reading is Balibar & Immanuel Wallerstein’s "Race, nation, classe: les identités ambiguës” published in French in 1988. It was translated into English in 1991.

amazon.com/Race-nation-cl…

amazon.com/Race-Nation-Cl…

7. People who consider themselves anti-woke or anti-antiracists have begun using “neoracism” and “neoracist” to refer to “reverse racism” (racism by POC against whites) & to label self-identified antiracists/critical race theorists as racist.

archive.vn/9Tngl

8. I was not able to trace the current usage of “neoracism” to any one individual who coined or popularized it. If anyone knows if there’s a high profile person who was using it regularly before late 2020, please let me know. My DMs are open.

9. I saw the new usage of “neoracism” growing in popularity on Twitter last year, but it has really taken off this year. Google has also seen an increase in searches for the term this year.

trends.google.com/trends/explore…

10. In 2018, 2019, and the first half of 2020, usage of the “cultural racism” definition of “neo-racism” was more common on Twitter, although tweets with this term were infrequent.

11. People using both definitions were tweeting the term with and without a hyphen, so I've included searches for both.

2018:
twitter.com/search?q=neora…

twitter.com/search?q=neo-r…

12.

2019:
twitter.com/search?q=neora…

twitter.com/search?q=neo-r…

13.

January – June 2020:
twitter.com/search?q=neora…

twitter.com/search?q=neo-r…

14. By the second half of 2020, the “reverse racism” or “antiracists are racists” definition of “neoracism” predominated:

twitter.com/search?q=neora…

twitter.com/search?q=neo-r…

15. The new usage of “neoracism” has really jumped this year:

twitter.com/search?q=neora…

twitter.com/search?q=neo-r…

16. I should note that given Twitter’s purge of 70,000+ accounts after the 1/6/21 insurrection at the US Capitol these search results may not represent how widespread usage of the new usage of “neoracism” was in the past year.

blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/c…
archive.vn/LxKDH

17. These search results also don’t include any accounts that are currently restricted with so-called shadowbans which can result in excluding an account’s tweets from search results.

shadowban.eu

18. Linguist and cultural commentator, John McWhorter used the word “neoracists” in the title of his new book which he has been releasing as a serial on Substack since 1/27/21 (initially for a $5 monthly subscription but is now free to all).

archive.vn/cqYw6

19. However, in a recent Substack post McWhorter wrote that he’s changing his book title from:

“The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and Their Threat to a Progressive America”

to:

“The Elect: The Threat to a Progressive America from Anti-Black Antiracists”

20. … because of confusion around his use of the term “neoracism” and what his book is actually about.

“My strategy will be to eschew the word “neoracism.””

johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/can-black-pe…

Archive: web.archive.org/web/2021022808…

21. McWhorter sought to clarify his use of the term and his thoughts on black racism against whites, which he does not see in equivalent terms as white racism against blacks.

22. Although McWhorter had also been using the term “neoracism” to describe to “antiracism”, he’s working from a different understanding of how antiracists are racist than the popular usage which sees them as racist against white people.

23.

“This is because my book is about how the modern conception of antiracism is racist against BLACK people.”

24. Given that the new definition of “neoracism” hasn’t solidified, and it may mean different things to different people (“cultural racism” v. “reverse racism” v. “antiracism is racist against blacks”) its meaning must be gleaned from context and may be misconstrued by readers.

25. Some people use “neoracism/neoracist” as a descriptive term but I’ve seen it used a pejorative term and an ad hominem attack.

If you’re going to use the term for a wide audience, you should define it first.

26. For my part I'll also be eschewing the term “neoracism”.

To me it looks like a new way of framing us v. them and differentiating imagined good guys from bad guys. I don’t find it helpful in furthering understanding.

27. Update:

I just noticed that the newly launched Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) has defined “neo-racism” as follows (left). They are using the old hyphenated spelling.
archive.is/EzhBk

Right: “A Dictionary of Critical Theory” definition of neo-racism.

28. For comparison.

1: FAIR definition of neo-racism

2: Lexico (Oxford English and Spanish Dictionary) definition of racism
lexico.com/en/definition/…

3. Merriam-Webster definition of racism
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rac…