What The Hell Is A Racist?

If one has any awareness of the current and never-ending drumbeat of the left's accusations of anyone and everyone of being racist, one has to stop and define the term in order to fully appreciate the slur.  What exactly constitutes a racist?  What are the definitions?  And why is that necessarily bad?  Before we qualify the severity of the invective of "racist!", don't we need to know why it is meant as a diss?  Let's research that. 

From the Oxford English Dictionary (the definitive last word in all things etymological, IMHO)

(Noun)   A person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

(Adjective)   Showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another.

Okay, that sounds like it's in keeping with the applied definitions used by all the loud and shrill voices that scream the invective at anyone and everyone, on almost an hourly basis.  But what is a race, as opposed to the species, of mankind, Homo Sapiens?  Let's find out.

Uh, oh.  Now it gets a little more complicated.  Even Wikipedia, known neither as the Internet's most unbiased nor authoritative source, acknowledges that one must consider three definitions and uses of the word "race," based on its intended application. 

For the sociological concept, see Race and society. For "the human race" (all of humanity), see Human. For the term "race" in biology, see Race (biology). For belief that the human species is naturally divided into races, see Racialism.

Okay, now we have some conflicting demands on the definition of the word "race."  Race as it applies to culture and society?  Race as it applies to biology?  Race as it applies to humans?   

In the Eighteenth century, and sporadically prior to then, ethnologists generally divided human beings into five distinct classes.  In those days humans were categorized as one of the Ethiopian, American,  Caucasian, Mongolian or Eskimo races.  Later, Pacific Islanders, such as Samoans were added to the list.  Those distinctions were made in part on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair, facial features, bone structure and so on.  

But those definitions didn't sit well with the enlightened egalitarian elites.  It seemed, well, just too confining to the vast human spirit, as we all know that all races (whatever that is) are equal in every way.  So, in 1950, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued a statement asserting that all humans belong to the same species and that "race" is not a biological reality but a myth. They didn't actually prove anything to support this, it was just a summary of the findings of an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists.  A classic case of "We all say so, so it is so."

Whew.  Thank goodness and just in time.  We must never find ourselves forced to evaluate, qualify or quantify our fellow Homo Sapiens.  That just won't do.  Egalitarianism must prevail.  Some are better than others?  Nonsense.  Damn the evidence to the contrary.

But wait.  Now I'm confused.  If an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists has determined that the idea of "race" is a myth, doesn't that necessitate that  "racism" also a myth?  And if that's the case, how can the enlightened egalitarian elites call anyone a "racist," if there's no such thing as "race?"

But no matter the facts, or edicts by self appointed anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists to the contrary, the epithet "racist" is still daily hurled unrelentingly to paint the intended target as bad, or ignorant, or worse, "racist."  So in the lexicon of our times, a racist apparently does in fact have some standard definable characteristics.  

Let's see if any of these non-existent-purely-mythical definitions of racist identify your humble narrator.  White?  Check.  Male?  Check.  Conservative?  Check.  American patriot?  Check.  Trump supporter?  Triple check.  Christian?  Check again.  Gun owner?  Check.  Baby boomer?  Check.  Southern boy?  Double check.

Whoa.  That's  interesting.  The first of these criteria - skin color - is a race qualifier which is used to define me as a racist.  That's circular logic. So I guess by this standard I'm a racist, whether or not I find others different from me as being inferior. 

Well then, it seems  I'm a racist.  And thank God!