The danger of definitions: what you’re still getting wrong about racism

I’m no expert on racial issues, and I won’t pretend to be. But I get frustrated when I read the comments of a piece talking about racism and see the same old arguments being thrown around.

“well actually, ALL lives matter”

“white people can experience racism too”

“if this was the other round you would call it racist”

These objections are tired and well-addressed. Instead, I’d just like to share a way of looking at why they’re unfounded that might be helpful. And I think it all boils to down to definitions, and how we use them.

Definitions are useful!

Ask any philosopher about an issue and one of the first things they’ll do is stop you and ask you to define what it is you’re talking about. And this is a helpful thing to do.

Does God exist? Well, that depends on how we define God. Is it wrong to steal? Well, define “wrong” and “steal”. Then we can start to answer it.

Debating definitions has been going on since basically forever. When Socrates wandered around the agora asking people what justice or courage is, he was pushing them for a definition.

SOCRATES: And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is that common quality which is called courage, and which includes all the various uses of the term when applied both to pleasure and pain, and in all the cases…