I've been putting it off, but now seems like a good time to talk about racism.  Let's start with a definition, courtesy of Merriam-Webster.

rac·ism
Pronunciation: 'rA-"si-z&m also -"shi-
Function: noun

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

  How lovely and half-assed.  How about we look at the word, racism, and find out its logical definition.

Main Entry: 3race
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, generation, from Old Italian razza

2 a : a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock b : a class or kind of people unified by community of interests, habits, or characteristics <the English race>

3 a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group b : BREED c : a division of mankind possessing traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a distinct human type

Main Entry: -ism
Function: noun suffix
Etymology: Middle English -isme, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, partly from Latin -isma (from Greek) & partly from Latin -ismus, from Greek -ismos; Greek -isma & -ismos, from verbs in -izein -ize

1 a : act : practice : process <criticism> <plagiarism> b : manner of action or behavior characteristic of a (specified) person or thing <animalism> c : prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a (specified) attribute <racism> <sexism>

2 a : state : condition : property <barbarianism> b : abnormal state or condition resulting from excess of a (specified) thing <alcoholism> or marked by resemblance to (such) a person or thing <giantism>

3 a : doctrine : theory : cult <Buddhism> b : adherence to a system or a class of principles <stoicism>

4 : characteristic or peculiar feature or trait

  The "-ism" of "race".  Don't let the "common" usages fool you, or you'll end up like the delusional people who believed the hurrican evacuees were not refugees.  A refugee is anything that has refuge.  They were refugees.  Get over it.

  Getting back to the point, there are all these cries of racism in America.  Gotta put an end to racism, and all that.  Well, I gotta tell ya, folks, in most cases, the people crying out the loudest are very racist themselves.  For instance, Al Sharpton and his talk of white devils and calling Jews vampires.  But I guess as long as nothing bad is being said about black people, it's okay.

  We have this huge portion of people who appear to believe the best way to fight against racism is to be racist.  I'm pretty sure that's called hypocracy.  And you can pretty much throw away the term "reverse racism".  It's just plain racism.

  It's hard to believe that Martin Luther King Jr. is still a reveared man, because it's not like so many people are actually following his teachings.  We're supposed to judge a person by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  Race is not supposed to mean anything, right?

  United Negro College Fund.  Latin Grammy's.  The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

  Those are all racist organizations.

  Let's have a look at the word "nigger".

Main Entry: nig·ger
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&r
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger

1 usually offensive, see usage paragraph below : a black person

2 usually offensive, see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race

3 : a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons <it's time for somebody to lead all of America's niggers... all the people who feel left out of the political process -- Ron Dellums>
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.

  They seem to have left out one: someone of great ignorance.  Note how this is not race specific.

  I've seen a few movies where people have called other people niggers in a non-racial manner.  I've also seen a number of shows on tv that mention how it's not okay for a white person to say it, but it is okay for a black person to say it.  Guess what?  Those people are racist.  I can't say it because I'm white?  You're a racist.  Congratulations.

  Anytime you make any kind of distinction based on race, you're being racist.  Even if you're just giving a description of someone (african-american, black, white, caucasion, latino, asian) you are being racist.  It may not be negatively racist, but it is racist.  It is an "-ist" pertaining to race.

  There's a lot of racism in America that most people find acceptable.  When it's something that is actually a matter fact, then it should be okay, but some of it is not a matter of fact and still considered acceptable by those who publicly claim to be against racism.  The hypocracy is also rampant in certain political beliefs.

  If you truly do not want to be racist, then you must not show ANY races preferential treatment.  If you are showing them preferential treatment, then you are considering them superior, in some way, to all other races.

  Fortunately, I don't hear it much at all anymore, but there was a time I would hear a person say they were proud of being the race they were, and it was okay... as long as they weren't white.  If you're any kind of racially proud, then you must find that race superior, in some way, to all other races.

  Consider the modern-day loud-mouthed champion of racism, or just the people and especially politicians who talk about racism.  They're power is dependant upon the existance of racism.  If they were to actually efficiate in the death of negative racism, they would be powerless.  They cannot afford to not be hypocritical.  They have to behave in ways that actually keep racism alive and well.

  Granted, they may not actually be aware of their behavior or their hypocracy, but they still need people to see negative racism in places whether it exists there or not.  They want to see it there, so they'll have something to do.

  I saw a talk show episode that talked about New Orleans and Katrina, when people were still trapped in the flooded areas.   It offered an excellent example of wanting racism to exist.

  This person gave the follwing information (not verbatim): A black police officer lead a group of people, who were primarily black, across a bridge in the hopes of getting to a part of the city.  They got to a barracade where there were other officers who told them that that portion of the city had been locked down.  The leading officer pleaded to have the people let in, but the barracade officer in charge refused, and said "we don't want those people in here".

  Keep in mind that we're talking about a group of people who are wanting to get into an area that was already locked down.  The talk show host in question emphasized the words "those people" and cried racism.

  Any group of people, of any race or combination of races, can be rightfully called "those people".  And it is entirely sensable that the barracade officers would not allow "those people" into an area that was locked down, meaning no one was supposed to be their.

  But that talk show host, and an undoubted many who watched, chose to see racism, and they would not have unless they wanted it to be there.

  This kind of behavior can be easily found in those who want to cast responsability for their own lives onto other people or groups.  These people don't like to face facts, because then they have to face their own insufficiencies and the fact that it's their own fault.

  I watched part of an episode of Tyra, a little while ago, and it featured a black woman who said she did not like black people, and that she wished she was white.  They made her up to look white, set her out on the town, and she thoroughly enjoyed it.  Tyra explained that she did not like the behavior of the woman sitting in front of her, but that she did like that of the other woman (guest made up white), and that it had nothing to do with her color.

  A psycologist was brought on, and it was revealed that the guest had been molested as a child and that a female close had allowed it to happen.  Then they blamed the guest's behavior on that one event in her past.

  I noticed that the guest frequently speaking in generalizations.  Stereotypes were being viewed as facts.

  Stereotypes exist because a significant number of examples of that stereotype exist.  The guest was attaching behavior to color, which was wrong, but I'd like someone to point out the fact that all the negative stereotypes would not exist if people would stop being living examples of them.  I'm willing to bet that the majority of the guest's attitude towards black people is due to the character of the many examples of black people she's been exposed to.

  I'm certainly not excusing the guest's views, but to completely ignore the fact that there are thousands of living examples of the behaviors she said she can't stand is complete denial.

  There's massive talk against stereotypes and prejudice based on them, but there is extreme little talk about diminishing the legitimacy of the stereotype.  It's a stereotype that black men are irresponsable, lazy, a sleep around.  Boo.  That's a bad stereotype.  It's mean and nobody should think that way and well, maybe nobody would if there weren't such a large quantity of living examples philandering around.

  It's one thing to complain about something bad, but if nothing is done to eliminate the reason it exists, then what is the point of complaining?  There is a negative stereotype of black women being fat loud-mouths, but have you noticed the number of tv shows and movies that actually celebrate examples of fat, loud-mouthed black women?

  At a certain point stereotypes are just statistical probabilities.  Which brings me to racial profiling.  There has been a lot of talk opposing racial profiling, but when national security is at stake, and you don't actually know enough about a particular person, and there is a high statistical probability that a person of a particular ethinicity is a greater danger than another ethnicity, then it's not a matter of rude or unfair.  It's just doing the math.

  People do the math every day in their lives, but if it somehow makes a person feel bad or inconveniences them, then it's wrong despite the possible consequences of sparing someone's feelings or convenience.  The probablities exist because they are backed up by facts.

  BTW: This stuff about racism holds true for sexism as well.  If you don't like a certain sexual sterotype, then ask yourself if you're a living example of it.