Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s)
By Nzinga Muhammad
Now, I’m not discrediting the dictionary when in use of any dialogue, debate, or argument. I use Webster and Merriam often as a good source, just not when trying to dismiss oppressed groups’ experiences. When trying to define someone’s daily hardship for being who they are, you can’t get a cheap text to invalidate their struggles, movements, and voices. I cannot count how many times I’ve had an explanation of how racism works, derailed by a Google screenshot of how they define it. It is literally a slap in the face to have all of your hardcore evidence of how this oppression is relevant in your life, to only be dismissed as irrelevant with a single counterattack definition.
I will just conclude it here by saying that racism does not happen to everyone. Yes, my dear white people, you can face hardships and struggles like anyone else. However, you can not face them and are not facing them because of your whiteness. In fact, you are avoiding a lot because of your whiteness.
Racism supports and benefits them in a society built to favor them, while harming others. This is called White Privilege and it has been in effect for hundreds of years, especially in the United States of America.
Please do not have so much confidence in Webster that it will make you an expert on racism, and prove those “social justice warriors” wrong. And to other POC who also pull up that definition to invalidate that which oppressed you, you too can take several seats. There is no room for negropeans, Uncle Toms, sell outs, and in general Crackers of Color (COC).
