Right in the centre - The word is prejudice, not racism
- Details
- Published on Friday, January 30, 2015
By Ken Waddell
The Neepawa Banner
The City of Winnipeg has been accused of being the most racist city in Canada. Nobody knows how to measure that but it’s futile to argue the point, racism, as it’s defined today, exists all over the world. It’s nasty stuff.
However, to solve the problem, definition and meaning of the word must be examined. The use of the word racism is incorrect.
When you look up racism on the internet, here’s what you find, “Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. It often takes the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.”
The definition above defines racism but it has been defined incorrectly. The definition words are the correct ones, that is prejudice and discrimination.
Racism cannot even exist for the simple reason that there is only one race, the human race. By definition, you can’t have racism, but you sure can have prejudice. The second word, discrimination, has also been defined or redefined incorrectly as well. Discrimination used to be good thing up until the U.S. civil rights movement claimed it as their own. Discrimination used to be good quality in a person as in “That person has discriminating tastes” or “That person shows discrimination.”
The word we should be using instead of racism is the first definition word above and that is prejudice. As former U.S. secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said in her speech in Winnipeg last week, we are all in the same boat. Yes, we are. There is only one race, the human race. All other differences between people groups aren’t racial but they may well be prejudicial. By definition, the differences can’t be based on race.
As unpopular as it is in the media of today and in the politically correct movement today, we need to refer to the Holy Bible for guidance. Here’s what it says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
-Ephesians 6:12-13 NIV”
In Luke 10:27, Jesus repeated earlier Bible admonitions when he said, “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
To re-quote Hillary Clinton, we are all in the same boat. Everyone is our neighbour and once we realize that, there will be no prejudice. We have a long way to go but we can keep working on it. Compared to other countries, and to earlier times, Canada is doing pretty well. Rather than despair about where we are at, we should rejoice in how far we have come and how far we can go.
