The meaning of racism has been buried under a mountain of antiracism
rhetoric that never actually defines it.

Antiracism has become the dominant focus of the discussion on racism
in the media. It is the new social trend that seems to perpetuate the
notion that Black people can also be racists.

But there's one problem.

Black people, who are the main target of racism, have been antiracists
from our first encounter with it. We've been fighting and speaking
against racism ever since our ancestors were kidnapped and brought
here against their wills over 400 years ago.

Making A Wrong Turn

The issue that most antiracist proponents seem to continually overlook
is providing a clear definition of racism. They are inclined to present
racism as a problem created and practiced by the entire society,
including Black people.

This is invalid.

They don't usually express it in direct terms but by omission. They
either provide no definition, or they give it an ambiguous meaning.

Let's Get Clear on the Meaning of Racism

Racism is simply the belief held by white-skinned people that they
are superior to (better than) those who do not have white skin.

Another way to say it is that racism is the fantasy held by Whites that
they are superior to those who do not possess white skin.

Said yet another way, racism is about how White people see themselves
in relation to those who are not White.

Those definitions are synonymous. They say the same thing in different ways.

Yet, the popular anti-racist materials seem to either not know this or
they have conveniently concealed this fact.

The bottom line is that White people believe that their white skin gives
them superiority over those who do not have white skin. That is
racism/white supremacy. It is a belief that is not based on merit or
achievements just on skin color.

As such, White people are the only group of people who can be and
have been racists historically or otherwise.

This simple, clear, and direct definition of racism is usually avoided by
the antiracism crowd because it is an indictment of White people. It
lays the problems and practices of racism squarely at the feet of White
people which, as a system, has been practiced by them globally for
centuries. They are the direct benefactors of its maintenance and
perpetuation.

The Quicksand of Racism

The result is the creation of a system that gives white-skinned people
advantages economically, socially, politically, and in other respects, over
those who do not have white skin. On that account, racism is a White
people's problem because, although it adversely affects us (Black
people) the most, we are not its inventors nor perpetrators and we
are certainly not the primary beneficiaries.

Neither are we, as intimated by some antiracists, responsible for solving the racism problem.

To claim that everyone in society, particularly Black people, is responsible for the resolution of racism is not only ahistorical but also unjust.

We (Black people) never enslaved people for hundreds of years for our enrichment, never bombed or burned people out of their homes, never destroyed entire thriving communities and murdered its harmless citizens all under the pretext that we are a superior race.

White people, however, did — from Greenwood in Oklahoma to Rosewood in Florida, from the Springfield massacre in Illinois to Slocum, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee, to Australia and the island of Tasmania, to the genocides in Namibia and the atrocities committed against Black people throughout the African continent, to the Indigenous people of North and South America, to the Caribbean islands of Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica — to name but a few. [For more on these and other racist massacres, CLICK HERE.

The Record Speaks for Itself

Black people have never dragged any White person out to a tree
and hung them to death just for sport or otherwise. But White people did
just that to Black people. And they did it repeatedly and in different
locations for decades.

Black people do not gun down innocent White men, women, boys, and
girls in the streets of America and then claim self-defense. White
people and White police officers do, and they turn to a so-called justice
system that finds them not guilty of any crimes in almost every single case.

The American courts have always favored and benefited those with
white skin. The cases of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Andre Hill, and
Breonna Taylor are but a fraction of such cases where justice was not
carried out by the courts. Black people are not the group who is found
innocent for doing such.

Black men did not rape White women and girls for centuries,
impregnating them and then abandoning both mother and child.
But White men did.

We (Black people) never created nor passed laws that prohibited any
people from learning to read or obtain an education. They did.

Black people never passed laws prohibiting marriage between people of
different races. Whites did.

It has been, and still is, a system that favors and benefits White people —
a system that was created by them and for them.

This is precisely the pattern Chancellor Williams spent 16 years documenting.

Don't Expect White People to Dismantle It

Are they willing to dismantle it?

Apparently not, because all attempts at doing
so are met with great, creative resistance.

Laws are twisted to maintain the status quo.
Bribes are paid to judges, lawyers, and elected
officials to favor Whites and not Black people or other people of color.
Elected officials and school boards attempt to eliminate historical facts
from being taught in the school system.

Are Black People Racist?

What adds more confusion to the topic surrounding the meaning of
racism is the statement/question, "Are Black People Racist?"

Racism is what we (Black people) have endured at the hands of White people.
It is not the reverse, as is indicated by the definition of the term and by
the examples already given.

Black people cannot and have not been racist.

There is no such thing as Black supremacy, as some would have
us believe. The word supremacy rules out the possibility of two parties
holding the supreme position simultaneously. Either one or the other is
supreme, but never both at the same time. There is racism/white supremacy,
not racism/black supremacy.

The Long-Lasting Funk of Racism

Let me be clear. Racism/white supremacy isn't a once-in-a-while thing
that happens randomly or suddenly. When racist incidents and stories
hit the evening news, mesmerizing the nation's attention, there are
dozens of equally appalling stories of racism that don't make the
evening news. The ones that do make it into the nation's
consciousness are not isolated incidents that happen
here and there every few months or years.

Racism does not abruptly raise its head out of an imagined tranquil
racial utopia. It is always there for everyone who has eyes to see.

The machinery of the racist power structure goes to work in overt and covert ways
to convince us that our experiences are invalid and our intellect questionable. But, in
fact, the reality of racism is one long, continuous, and unrelenting horror-show without
commercials or comedic relief.

It's constant.
Uninterrupted.
Ruthless.
Stubborn.

Its survival is guaranteed because the truth
of what it actually means is avoided and eludes most people.

Failure to comprehend racism's meaning, essence, and
purpose guarantees its existence, and by extension, its overdue
resolution. The practitioners of racism, knowingly and unwittingly, carry
out its designed purpose. In either case, the result is the same: a system that
benefits those who classify themselves as white-skinned and no one else.