nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> don't know either of them nor did watch the video.  Racism, sexism and 
> violence in general are facts of life, so what is there to surprise?

  A more interesting social phenomenon is the inflation of certain terms,
the word "racism" being a prime example.

  The meaning of the term "racism" is prejudice or discrimination based on
ethnicity (iow. the notion that certain ethnic groups are in some ways
inferior to or worse, eg. more violent, than others, and/or the concrete act
of discrimination against people because of their ethnicity).

  However, the meaning of the term has been expanded enormously. For example,
xenophobia is not, by definition, racism because it has nothing to do with
ethnicity. (For example, the citizen of a country can have the opinion that
foreigners in general should not be welcome because they lack the uprising,
culture, values and knowledge of the people who have born and raised in the
country, and (adult) foreigners coming to the country is only detrimental
to those values and culture.) A xenophobe might be completely unconcerned
about ethnicity, and only concerned about culture, upbringing, values and
customs. However, xenophobes are called racists as a matter of course.
(So much in fact that the very word "xenophobia" has fallen almost completely
out of usage, replaced with the word "racism". Many young people probably
have never even heard the word "xenophobia" or what it means.)

  Also people who show strong opposition to certain cultures and/or religions
are also usually called "racists" as a matter of course, especially if the
majority of people representing those cultures/religions are non-white. Yet
again, these opinions may have absolutely nothing to do with ethnicity.

  "Racist" has become a derogatory insult, a word of vilification. It has
lost most of its original meaning and has become a political swearword.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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