Racism, to me, is viewing another person as inferior or "lower" or assigning negative traits to him (based on his race) without actually knowing him.
Is it racism to point out the race or skin color of someone who has done something awful or committed a crime (or conversely, done something amazing or wonderful or kind)? No, not really. I notice the color of people's skin just as an aesthetic thing. When I describe a person to someone else, I might mention the color of the individual I'm describing's skin.
It becomes racism when the pointing out of race or skin color is used to make assumptions about a race (a Jewish business owner overcharges his customers = all Jews are greedy) or to imply that a race is inferior or uniformly has negative traits (Hispanic people are thieves. It's just the way they are. Lock up your jewelry when your friend Maria comes to visit.).
I think we all have areas that we need to work on as far as racism goes. We need to work toward eliminating the presumptions and try to treat everyone with as much kindness as our relationship with them warrants. I am still have a long way to go in learning not to prejudge and stereotype others. I am not blameless.
| and the general behavior of your own people |
This demonstrates nicely what I'm talking about. "You" people. Blacks are not a collective. They don't have weekly meetings wherein they decide what all blacks should do and what type of attitude they should have for the week.
Black people, like Jewish people and Caucasian people and Hispanic people and Asian people, etc. are individuals. I don't know how fair or correct it is to assign "general behavior" to a race of people.
Not to pick on ForeverSerenity, but she is a well known black woman here on JU. She shows respect for herself and others. She is kind, bright, and informed. She doesn't slander other people because of their race, nor does she "play the race card".
How fair is it to hold her accountable for the actions of people who happen to share her race or skin tone? Should she be responsible for controlling the actions of people she has never met?
How fair is it for her to have to sort through oodles of articles on JU criticizing her by race for things that she has absolutely nothing to do with nor any control over?
Racism hurts wonderful people like ForeverSerenity. Why contribute to that?