The “racismS” is a useful concept, but should use a new word instead of hijacking an existing one, because “racismF” is a useful concept, too.
The obvious reason why people are sensitive about being accused of “racismS” and refuse to admit it publicly, is that they know someone else will interpret their words as a public admission of “racismF”. (Especially when both words are pronounced the same.)
If “racismS” is de facto a synonym for “being white”, why is it not enough if white people simply confess to being white? What additional information is provided by confessing to also being “racistS”?
This isn’t my area of expertise, but as best as I understand it, one reason why racismS is not de facto a synonym for “being white” because racismS is not primarily a description of individual people, the way racismF can be.
That is to say, you can call someone a racistF, which is de facto a synonym for calling them a bigot or intolerant or a “race realist” or something like that, because a racistF is someone who believes in or professes racismF or acts like they do. But racismS doesn’t work like that. It isn’t an explicit belief system, but “a systemic, usually (nowadays) non-explicit or euphemistic, often subconscious, interlocking and pervasive set of social, cultural, and political devices that reinforce white supremacy.”
So you wouldn’t tell someone “you’re racistS” but you might tell someone “you might want to be aware that the decision X that you made, or the thing Y that you said, had the effect of strengthening or perpetuating racismS.”
The “racismS” is a useful concept, but should use a new word instead of hijacking an existing one, because “racismF” is a useful concept, too.
The obvious reason why people are sensitive about being accused of “racismS” and refuse to admit it publicly, is that they know someone else will interpret their words as a public admission of “racismF”. (Especially when both words are pronounced the same.)
If “racismS” is de facto a synonym for “being white”, why is it not enough if white people simply confess to being white? What additional information is provided by confessing to also being “racistS”?
This isn’t my area of expertise, but as best as I understand it, one reason why racismS is not de facto a synonym for “being white” because racismS is not primarily a description of individual people, the way racismF can be.
That is to say, you can call someone a racistF, which is de facto a synonym for calling them a bigot or intolerant or a “race realist” or something like that, because a racistF is someone who believes in or professes racismF or acts like they do. But racismS doesn’t work like that. It isn’t an explicit belief system, but “a systemic, usually (nowadays) non-explicit or euphemistic, often subconscious, interlocking and pervasive set of social, cultural, and political devices that reinforce white supremacy.”
So you wouldn’t tell someone “you’re racistS” but you might tell someone “you might want to be aware that the decision X that you made, or the thing Y that you said, had the effect of strengthening or perpetuating racismS.”