Racism’s sinister word games: What a white-supremacist talking point tells us about modern politics

From Salon:

It’s important we understand such rhetorical tactics not simply as forms of racism, but as part of an important history that parallels, and lives symbiotically off of, the history of racism: the history of denying the existence of racism. Whether it’s borrowing the multiculturalist language of discrimination in accusations of 'reverse-racism,' or expropriating the term 'racist' as a symbol of white pride, the perpetrators subject themselves to a double-bind: They respect the idea of race-based discrimination when they themselves feel embattled or diminished as whites, but deny the same when the victims of discrimination are minorities.

More here.

Denying racism IS racism. Intentionally confusing the word "racism," which has a very specific meaning, and includes both personal behavior and institutional action, with the more generalized terms "bigotry" or "discrimination" is ALSO racism.

That is, if you're attacking "race baiters" or going on and on about "playing the race card," there's a very good chance that you are aiding and abetting traditional American racism. I'm quite certain, however, that you will never admit this, to me, or anybody else, or even yourself. This is deep psychological weirdness that wants to have a racist cake while eating it at the same time.

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