As far as I can tell it was coined by people to make it so that only people who are conventionally-labeled "white" can be racist.
I can see why you'd want to use the word "racism" to mean "prejudice/discrimination based on race," because we don't really have another word that means that. But I also think it's useful to have some word-- suggestions I've heard have been "institutionalized racism," or, in America, just plain "White racism"-- to show that there really is a difference between discrimination with power behind it and discrimination without.
Let me give an example. In the school where I worked last year, there was plenty of prejudice between different people of color-- Black kids vs Latino kids, Puerto Rican kids vs. Dominican kids, African-American kids vs. kids who recently immigrated from Africa, etc.,-- and it led to some fights. But it didn't have nearly as great an impact on people's lives as did the racism of the people who made decisions about school budgets which meant that we couldn't afford math textbooks. They're both arguably racism-- but one has power behind it, and that's the one that really made people's lives hard.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-08 08:06 pm (UTC)I can see why you'd want to use the word "racism" to mean "prejudice/discrimination based on race," because we don't really have another word that means that. But I also think it's useful to have some word-- suggestions I've heard have been "institutionalized racism," or, in America, just plain "White racism"-- to show that there really is a difference between discrimination with power behind it and discrimination without.
Let me give an example. In the school where I worked last year, there was plenty of prejudice between different people of color-- Black kids vs Latino kids, Puerto Rican kids vs. Dominican kids, African-American kids vs. kids who recently immigrated from Africa, etc.,-- and it led to some fights. But it didn't have nearly as great an impact on people's lives as did the racism of the people who made decisions about school budgets which meant that we couldn't afford math textbooks. They're both arguably racism-- but one has power behind it, and that's the one that really made people's lives hard.