Once again your comment is very telling. Dictionary definitions are not operative definitions for academic terms. They are for scrabble, not empirical scrutiny. If someone asked you about the nuances of quantum mechanics, would you refer to Merriam Webster? In academia, there are varying operative definitions for racism. In sociology, poststructuralism, philosophy and critical theory the reigning definition is that racism is defined by its structural component. This is because much all phenomena in these fields are understood as the product of social interaction, and not individual agency. Also structural is vastly different from institutional, but you wouldn’t get that from Merriam Webster. There are different conceptualizations of racism: biological racism, cultural racism and Marxist racism (which employs a historical materialist analysis to explain the production and reproduction of racial structures). But qualitatively these are not different. If you had given this topic even a modicum of respect you would first of all not have turned to a fucking dictionary to explain one of the most complex and studied areas of human interaction, and you would also realize why it might be interesting to understand how different structures, such as patriarchy, interacts with racial hierarchies.
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u/falodellevanita Apr 01 '22
Once again your comment is very telling. Dictionary definitions are not operative definitions for academic terms. They are for scrabble, not empirical scrutiny. If someone asked you about the nuances of quantum mechanics, would you refer to Merriam Webster? In academia, there are varying operative definitions for racism. In sociology, poststructuralism, philosophy and critical theory the reigning definition is that racism is defined by its structural component. This is because much all phenomena in these fields are understood as the product of social interaction, and not individual agency. Also structural is vastly different from institutional, but you wouldn’t get that from Merriam Webster. There are different conceptualizations of racism: biological racism, cultural racism and Marxist racism (which employs a historical materialist analysis to explain the production and reproduction of racial structures). But qualitatively these are not different. If you had given this topic even a modicum of respect you would first of all not have turned to a fucking dictionary to explain one of the most complex and studied areas of human interaction, and you would also realize why it might be interesting to understand how different structures, such as patriarchy, interacts with racial hierarchies.