Is it possible for a “person of color” to be racist?  The latest emerging definitions suggest some scholars believe only “white” people can be guilty of racism.  The controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum teaches that all white people, whether they realize it or not, are bred with an unconscious bias towards / against people of color – making them racist.

What is racism?  For the average person, racism is defined as having bias, animosity, or hatred for another person, or people, based on race.  Most people believe that all people, regardless of race, are capable of being racist.  For individuals immersed in the study of racism such as professors, sociologists, and activists, the definition of racism is not so easily defined.  It’s more complicated, because it’s often elusive. It’s deceptive because it’s frequently camouflaged.

Definitions of racialism first appeared in the beginning of last century.  In 1902, racism was referred to as racialism. A year later the shorter-term racism was cited by the Oxford English Dictionary. Today, the word “racialism” is seldom used in speech or writing.

Widely accepted definitions of racism have remained consistent at the core over the past 120 years. When a person, or group of people are discriminated against because of their race, that’s racism.  When a person, or group of people are looked upon as inferior based on their race, that’s also racism.  When a person, people, or institution attempts, or succeeds at segregating a person, or group of people based on race, that too is racism. 

In the 1983 Edition of Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary, the following definitions appeared. 

Racialism -a doctrine or feeling of racial differences or antagonisms, especially with reference to supposed racial superiority, inferiority, or purity; racial prejudice.

Racism – 1. Racialism.  2. Program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, persecution, and domination, based on racialism.

Racist – a person who believes in the doctrine of racialism or who advocates or practices racism.

Today’s Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines racism as a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. This definition reflects the evolution of understanding that can be witnessed within the ongoing struggle to identify, acknowledge, and eradicate racism from society.  

On the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Health Equity” webpage, racism is defined as a system consisting of structures, policies, practices, and norms -that assigns value and determines opportunity based on the way people look or the color of their skin. This results in conditions that unfairly advantage some and disadvantage others throughout society.

The CDC’s current definition enlarges the scope – pushing into new spaces that have the potential to dilute the definition of racism.  If every act of discrimination based on the way people look, regardless of the color of their skin, is now called racism, then all people, regardless of skin color, harbor racist thoughts and beliefs. Like it or not, all people make real time assumptions about people based on attractions and distractions – apart from skin color. 

A roofing company hiring manager that doesn’t hire an armless person for an open roofer position is not automatically a racist, even though he or she would indeed be determining and denying an employment opportunity based on the way a person looks.  Does it help the cause if we tag this as racism?  It’s hard to see how this broader definition can be useful.  Even if the hiring manager in this example was white, and the person applying to be a roofer was black, the appearance of having no arms would stand up in any fair court as a justifiable reason to deny employment as a roofer.

Is it possible for a “person of color” to be racist?  The latest emerging definitions suggest some scholars believe only “white” people can be guilty of racism.  The controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum teaches that all white people, whether they realize it or not, are bred with an unconscious bias towards / against people of color – making them racist.

Updated in July 2020, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) “Racism” webpage defines racism as the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people. 

This latest push to make racism solely a white man’s disease has been widely accepted and adopted, with minimal resistance, across liberal plains as well as corporate boardrooms. Little has actually been accomplished by all this virtual signaling other than fortifying divisions and creating new ones.  There are black people that hate white people simply because they are white.  There are people of color that despise white people, that want to discriminate against white people, that want to persecute and segregate white people, just the same, because they are white.  Yet this isn’t racism?

This past week The Salvation Army, a beloved worldwide charity, made news when it was reported that the Christian Ministry went woke, to the chagrin of its conservative donors.  A Salvation Army discussion guide titled “Let’s Talk About…Racism”, which was approved in April 2021, defines racism as the prejudiced treatment, stereotyping or discrimination of POC (people of color) on the basis of race. Racism also refers to the system of social advantage and disadvantage or privilege and oppression that is based on race. Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities.

The Salvation Army provides a footnote (Imani, B. (2020). Making Our Way Home. Ten Speed Press.) to support its adopted definition of racism.  Blair Imani (born Blair Elizabeth Brown, October 31, 1993) is a successful Author, Historian, and Activist.  Imani self-describes as a black, bisexual, Muslim woman.  She is 28 years old and has concluded that only people of color can be the victims of racism, and only white people can be racist.  Apparently, the Salvation Army agrees.     

By Webster’s definition, any claim that only white people can be racist, is an example of racism.  CRT has the answer to this conundrum.  Noah Webster, despite helping found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791, was a white man of European descent, and must therefore be racist – thus nullifying his definition of racism and his lifetime of work.