I am taking a smack at Joselyn Dumas for a good cause; to clear the hovering misconception out there, which largely weakens and softens the offence of racism.
Racism is something I abhor and regard as an assault on humanity, if not on a group of humans. However, increasing ignorance and misappropriation of the term ‘Racism’ has watered down the offensive connotation and the degrading status of this crime.
To explain this from another angle, let me digress to pull in another grave crime against humanity-Genocide—and point out that, just like racism, the wrong and mostly politicized usage of this term has taken away from it the magnitude of attention it should command.
Reasonably, when you hear racism, eyebrows must rise; but today, it is so abused and everything unrelated has become racism, such that the people suffering in the hands of true racism are not getting the due attention and help.
And it’s this practice that I seek to correct with this post, in relation to Joselyn Dumas’ statement that she has suffered racism in the hands of some Black-British and African-Americans (video below).
Technically and truthfully, I believe a black person cannot reasonably argue that he or she has suffered racism in the hands of another person of the same race—racism is a ‘crime’ from one race or ethnicity to another, mostly from the cushioned race to the underprivileged one.
If I can still remember my simple definition; racism is treating another person less favorable than would treat others because of their race—reasonably, the actor must belong to a different race.
If a white woman treats a black man less favorable than she would treat others of her race because of the black man’s sex and not race, that’s not racism—rather, sexism.
The Oxford dictionary also defines racism as; “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”
It’s therefore wrong, somewhat a common confusion for Joselyn Dumas to say she has suffered racism in the hands of people of her race. Perhaps she has suffered other forms of discrimination but not racism. What needs to be emphasized is, racism is a specific form of discrimination and not the catch-word for all types of discrimination.

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