The (Psychological?) Definition of Racism + Contextuality of Racism

4/25/09
First up, I'd like to ask for some feedback on this one. I have a lot of questions... sorry it's kind of a long post but...

Story.

Background knowledge: There is one Black kid on the distance team in track / cross country team.

The other day at practice, some of us were stretching after our run, and he says, "I'm not trying to sound racist but..."

This is when I kind of step in and say, "Jon, you can't be racist..." The comment is kind of brushed aside by him, but picked up by other people. But he finishes his thought and says "I've noticed that when it gets sunny outside or when it gets to be summer time, White people's hair gets blonder."

My friend (who took an Anthropology course last semester entitled "Race and Racism") proceeded to argue with me. "Joe CAN be a racist." I explained that because of the definition of racism (a system of advantage based on race), he can't be a racist, because since he's a person of color he is in the "oppressed" category, not the "oppressor" category. Sure, he can be prejudiced, but not racist.

Anyway, after having this conversation a second time (see earlier post), I've come to realize that racism is kind of contextual. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if this makes sense. The same situation Aaron was talking about in class at the beginning of the semester (his argument: in East Saint Louis, Black people can be racist against White people) came up again.

Sooo, pretty much from these discussions with others, "-isms" all depend on the context of the situation. If you're in a location where women are the dominant sex (I'm not sure if this is true anywhere, but go with me on this one), then they can be sexist against men. Same with race. Any place where one race has power over other races - where there is a system of advantage based on race, it depends on who has the advantage.

My argument was that since we are in America, where White people are systematically advantaged, Joe cannot be racist. But, what I wonder - is could this be scaled down to a different societal level? Could this be at a community level where Aaron's example of East Saint Louis would be valid?

Another question arose during this argument (and as a result, I'd like to say neither of us backed down, but there are no hard feelings - we just dropped the subject). Who makes this definition of racism? My question is: is this a Psychological definition? Because my friend who took the Anthropology class Race and Racism was not exposed to this same definition. And she's not an ignorant person - she's really smart... so something tells me that different classes learn different definitions - or something. It just confused me so much - especially this coming from her because she has been educated on this subject, so she should know the definition of racism, assuming it's a universal definition, which it seems isn't. I'd really like some feedback on this. This is something that's been kind of bothering me for a couple of days now.