(12-17-2020, 01:09 PM)mikesez Wrote: Yes, plenty of black people have power, and in those cases the "prejudice + power" definition could implicate them.
So I agree with Americus and I don't think "prejudice + power" is the best definition for racism. It has a lesson to teach, though. I think the lesson is, when you look at an individual, evaluate that person according to how much power they have. If they have little power, their prejudices don't mean much, and they shouldn't get a finger pointed at them. But if they have a lot of power, expect them to be working on their own prejudices and expect them to lift up people who are historically underrepresented or disadvantaged.

I also think there is such a thing as white supremacy. It's a mindset lots of people have that they are unaware of. Simply thinking of white as "default" and black as a "variation" is an example of white supremacy. White people tend to not think about their own race at all, and they tend to think of whiteness as one of the least interesting things about their white friends. But when they consider a black person, suddenly they will think of that person's race as a really important characteristic - even if they don't think it's a bad characteristic, it comes to the forefront of their mind and conversation. The two need to meet in the middle. We should be more conscious of our own whiteness, and less conscious of the race of non white people. Have them equal in your mind.

What you are saying about becoming more aware of our whiteness sounds like another form of racism, albeit from a different angle. I think white supremacists are pretty aware of their whiteness, they don't have any problem with that. Why advocate that for even more people?
Or....perhaps we could stop thinking about color altogether. And that goes for all races. There is racism in every country; every country has it's segment of the population it discriminates against. And i think many of us on this forum know the solution to this problem, but because of the supreme wisdom of the moderators and rules of this board, we are restricted from discussing it. I 'll leave it at that.

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