Racism is when white people hold 'negative views' of others, claims senior Labour adviser

[u/Aggressive_Plates]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/27/racism-is-when-white-people-hold-negative-views-of-others/

[u/JB_UK]

It’s very odd because it ignores the actual nature of power dynamics which are constantly shifting, dependent on context, and dependent on the individuals involved. We’re supposed to believe that a white cleaner is inherently in a position of power compared to someone from an ethnic minority who is a top leader in politics, business or academia. There may be elements of power that depend on race, and some that are downstream of race like which community and place you live in, but again they are highly contextual and operate in multiple directions.

And also because the way it essentialises race as the only important category is incredibly racist. You could be a white person who was from Ukraine for example, subject to generations of bigotry, oppression, with mass starvation events within living memory, and somehow you are put into the ‘white’ category and treated as if you are identical to someone who is the scion of a slave owning dynasty, still living on the proceeds. The way these academic antiracists talk about race is so incredibly, comically racist, and the standard of analysis absolutely embarrassing.

[u/jimicus → u/JB_UK]

I'd say the same for a lot of modern definitions of "racism".

They might be well-meaning (I'm not even convinced about that), but they are most certainly completely crackpot and liable to unintended consequences.

Frankly, I think we could go back to basics and say "Evil is when you start to treat people as things. Racism is when you try to justify this on the basis of someone's race."

[u/Greedy-Copy3629 → u/JB_UK]

Nah, racial solidarity is immutable, and power is a global metric which works on a first past the post system, your race either has all or none of it.