Abstract

“Racism” has become, but was not always, the most common term used to condemn behavior and attitudes in the racial domain of life. Yet it no longer has a fully shared meaning in ordinary language (in English, and perhaps in some other languages). Some see racial wrongs such as racial insensitivity, racial ignorance, racial discrimination, or racial disrespect as forms of racism, while others see them as forms of racial wrongfulness that differ from racism. A person saying they have experienced racism should normally be believed, but this does not mean the person always understands the full character of what has happened to them. “Systemic racism” is a useful idea that protects against an overfocus on the individual dimension of racism. But systemic racism often still involves individual complicity and other individually wrongful behavior. “Implicit bias” involves prejudices of which the subject is not aware. Responsibility for such attitudes is a complicated issue, but persons can be responsible for not trying to root out unconscious prejudices of which others make they aware. “Racism is prejudice plus power” is a common definition of racism, but is problematic. It tends to overlook the ways people of color sometimes have power to hurt others, even including whites. Nevertheless the definition is useful in pointing to a moral asymmetry in most (though not all) manifestations of racism, that racism against people of color is generally more morally serious and wrongful than anti-white racism of the same form; for example, while an anti-white racial slur, like “honky,” is wrong and hurtful, it is not as much as the “n-word” used for Blacks.