The Overton Salon

By Andrew Dyrli Hermeling

Everyone is calling everyone else a racist these days. But what does that even mean? I think it’s time to nail down this definition once and for all. (And this isn’t just because I’ve been listening to lots of Das Racist lately.)

Racism is any presupposition about a person based on race.

For example, in Arizona, if you look like a Mexican, you are an illegal immigrant until you can prove otherwise. That’s racism.

For example, in New York City, if you are Jewish, you are a money lender. That’s racism.

For example, if you are an African-American, you voted for Obama. That’s racism…

Am I a racist?

But hold on a second. Is that last example really that harmful? That makes Chuck Todd a racist. And therein lies the problem, we are all racists to some extent. If I’m picking a basketball team, and there are 5 African-Americans and one white dude, guess who’s getting picked last. Whoops, the white dude is J.J. Redick and I just got stuck with Stanley from the Office. The problem with calling everyone racist is everyone is, and it doesn’t take long until you can make a valid argument defending your accusation.

So how do we differentiate between Chuckie T. who just tries to work with demographics and the Aryan Nation alive and well in Idaho? First of all, we need to be more careful with how we throw around the term racist as opposed to bigot. Those responsible for planting a bomb in Spokane are bigoted, no doubt about it. Pollsters who try to predict how African-Americans vote are making presuppositions, but certainly they are not bigoted. However, such polls would be pointless if we lived in a truly color-blind society. As long as we have de facto segregation, African-Americans disproportionately living in poor cities, and a majority of our immigrants not being white, some racism will be inevitable. Quite frankly, having certain aspects of culture attached to race probably isn’t a bad thing.

Unfortunately there is no line of demarkation separating bigots from the majority of us peaceful and loving racists. Not to dig up old news, but how do we classify Newt Gingrich’s accusation that President Obama exhibits “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.” Well, first and foremost, the easiest classification is idiotic, because it simply isn’t true. You can defend calling Obama’s view’s internationalist or more in line with European politics, but last time I checked, most of his political policies are in staunch opposition to the modus operandi of Kenyan politics.

But beyond that, it is hard to call it bigoted. But it certainly is racist, and it certainly connects Obama’s race to a negative quality. I guess maybe idiotic is as good as we can get on that one.

All that being said, using both of these terms (and certainly there are many more that can fit within this framework) more accurately makes us more capable of speaking decisively on certain issues. When we call people racist all the time, we end up watering it down and making discourse on race less effective. Instead, we should assume that we are all racist (which in some measure we all are) and leave the bigotry to those who don’t deserve to be heard. In doing so, we can call out what’s wrong with Arizona or Newt without leaving ourselves vulnerable to counter accusations.