Racism

The usurpation of a powerful word to retard freedom of speech

 

What is racism, exactly?  There was a time when that word conjured images of crosses burning on lawns, lynchings, and deeply hateful characters in sheets and conical hats.  The use of the word 'racist' was a powerful indictment, while the term 'bigot' was used against people with backwards ideas and silly notions where racial issues were concerned.

 

Times have changed, though.  I see the word 'racist' bantered about as if it were no more powerful than calling someone a schmuck or a jerk.  I see that word used to stifle freedom of speech, for no better reason than the fact that it's a great way to (supposedly) prove somebody wrong.  While I may understand its usefulness in this capacity, I don't understand how a 'racist' has become somebody whose opinion has nothing, whatsoever, to do with race.

 

Still, I was curious.  So I picked up my old dictionary, one that was printed in the 1970s, to find the older meaning of the word 'racism' and what it meant at one time.  This is the full definition:
 

• 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.

That was the long and short of it.  No secondary meanings, no other nuances - just the belief that one is superior or inferior based on one's race.  In its simplicity, this is a very powerful definition, because it allows people to treat other people as if they were animals, animals that can be lynched and tortured with no ethical dilemma short of animal cruelty.

 

But words and meanings change as time goes on, don't they?  In the early 1900s, 'gay' was happy and jubilant; by the 1970s it was homosexual; and finally, by the end of the 1990s it was used to describe something stupid or dumb (as in, "That's a really gay idea").

 

It can be argued that 'racism' should be the same, that the meaning should evolve.  So, I did some checking on updated definitions for this word:
 

• The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
• Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
• Hatred of another race or races.

The first definition is a rather watered down version of my original finding, the second definition broadens the usage, but the third is fairly straight forward and powerful.

 

Admittedly, I don't care much for this attenuated version of the word, but I have little choice other than to accept the normal evolution of a once powerful word.  I am saddened to see that a word used to describe the lowest of the low has now become a throw-away term for anyone who shows any prejudice of race, to the point that even off colored jokes about people of different races immediately earns the teller the title of 'racist'.  This is a travesty, as far as I'm concerned.  Still, life is full of little travesties like this.

 

The problem that exists with this sort of evolution is that now the word 'racist' has become so feeble that it is used to smear anyone who disagrees with any opinion of any group of people, regardless of race.  Are you against illegal immigration?  Then you are a racist.  Are you against extreme Islam?  Then you are a racist.

 

See how easy that is?

 

This all stems from the progressive liberal Democrat's opinion that anyone who opposes Muslim immigration, even without proper vetting, must absolutely be racist.  It is an epithet that they vomit forth time and time again, whenever their platform on immigration is scrutinized.  They care little that someone may be just trying to closely examine the platform or that their platform might possibly be wrong, only that they now have a word that they can use in order to slander and brow-beat any dissenters into submission.

 

Racism is a word that's root is based in race.  Muslims are not a race.  To suggest that I am a racist when I fully expect people wishing to assimilate into my country, a country that is rife with firearms and easily accessibly weaponry, be vetted to ensure that those people wish to be a part of this country and live in harmony with our laws and people, is a depravity.  I say 'depravity' because I have close family ties to many middle-eastern people.  I further have good friends who are of middle eastern descent.  I don't have any belief that I am superior to them because of my race, I don't hate them because they are not my race, and I sure as hell don't discriminate against them because they are not my race.  Yet, because I am suspicious of the Muslim religion, I am tarred as a racist.

 

So, let's take a moment in silence and say goodbye to a once powerful word, a word that has not been replaced with a more powerful form, a word that carried specific connotations that it no longer does, a word that had a place in the English language that no longer exists, a word that is now dead from overuse and poor evolution.  Also, let's add one final definition to the word, because this new definition precisely describes the word and its usage:
 

• A term used to stifle freedom of speech and prove anyone wrong who disagrees with the progressive liberal agenda.

You were a good word, a righteous word, I'm sorry to see you pass.