What IS Racism, Anyway?

This really isn't an easy question to answer. But one thing seems undeniable -- racists attribute one or more characteristics to a particular "race," so that if you happen to be a member of a given racial group, you automatically possess these characteristics.

Some caveats:

1. These characteristics are not physical....they are akin to moral dispositions like virtues and vices, or mental [not cranial] attributes -- subjective things in other words, things you can't "test for" empirically.

2. Of course, there is NO such thing as a "racial group" -- ask any anthropologist. There are physical characteristics -- OK, like skin color -- that enable us to "categorize" ourselves. But notice that there are NO objective categories -- we invent them in order to categorize according to our own whims. Notice that there really aren't any black, white, red or yellow people. These "colors" are interpretive. [We're all actually some shade of brown.]

3. The characteristics used by racists CHANGE -- so, therefore, does "racism"! This is ignored by many people, and as a result a challenge to racism often seems oddly out of place. The challenger is often contending against a form of racism that has ceased to exist. [Do I hear the good reverends Sharpton and Jackson grumbling in the background??]

4. Racists place EVERYONE in a "racial group" -- which, of course means that everyone is alleged to have certain innate group characterists.

Is racism good or bad? Ok, ok, ok...it depends on whether or not you are a "racists". But my point is that there's a more basic question.....IS RACISM TRUE -- factually, empirically, verifiabily true?

Of course it 's not -- NOTHING about racism is based on evidence....

So....even before you get to the question of its value...you are confronted with the "truth" that it's stupid....like believing the world is flat!