As the Mandarin once wrote, “racism stinks no matter who the victim is” Unfortunately for the reality-based community, an ugly myth remains rampant—exacerbated by the George Zimmerman verdict—that racism is limited only to white people.

Here’s a racist. He doesn’t know it, and would be apoplectic to hear it, but his conviction that black people need to be apologized to, need to be given special consideration, need to be allowed to play by different rules and get special breaks because black people are, you know, basically little children who need tutoring and mollycoddling, well, that all makes sense if he considers black people inferior to whites simply because they had the bad luck to have been born black. It is prejudiced, it is discriminatory, and by God is it ever racist. But listen to how he fawns over blacks and extends such loving, paternal support to nearly all his black guests. You want a closet racist who is so deep that he cannot even comprehend it? Ecce homo. Or maybe he isn’t. You judge for yourself.

No, this idea is not limited to non-white folks; in fact, probably more whites believe this nonsense than any other group—exact statistics are hard to come by because few folks want to admit to being this stupid. There’s even a term for this: reverse racism. But there is no forward or reverse about racism—it’s just racism.

Witness, for example, author Brad Thor’s conversation with Chicago “Windy City Live” co-host Val Warner when she counters Thor’s claim that anyone can be a racist (at 2:50): “You can be a racist if you have the power to hold down someone else; that’s a racist. You may be prejudiced—there’s a difference between being prejudiced and being racist. You have to have the ability to hold power and have control over someone in order to be titled ‘racist’ versus ‘prejudiced.’”

Her comment is naive and ignorant, and betrays this exact attitude that racism is a one-way street. Fundamentally, she confuses oppression with racism, which confuses the part with the whole. Oppression may be the result of racist beliefs, but racism does not result from oppression. And oppression does not always result in racism.

When a person believes that a given race of person is inherently superior or inferior to another race, that person holds a racist belief. This can manifest itself in any combination, by the way:

• A white person who believes whites are inherently superior to blacks is racist. For example, your conventional white supremacist jackass.
• A black person who believes blacks are inherently superior to whites is racist. For example, Malcolm X around 1965.
• A black person who believes whites are inherently superior to blacks is racist as well. For example, blacks who automatically assume all whites are in authority and therefore superior—most of your black leftist liberals—actually espouse a form of innate racism.

This will surprise many liberals, but it is true regardless. A white person may be in a position of authority over a black person—for example, a white judge sentencing a black offender—but it is perfectly possible to identify many examples of blacks in authority over whites in this country: a black cop pulls over a white speeder, a black mayor addresses a white property owner, a black school teacher disciplines a white sophomore, and so on. These examples are countless, but by definition prove that whites are not inherently superior.

And that can be inherently superior in a system: many blacks sadly believe they lack any real chance of economic ability because the whites control the government, control the local job market, control the banking industry, are the cops, the firemen, the lawyers, and so on. This assumption—that you are inherently inferior because the system is superior—meets the definition of racism.

Speaking of which, Ms. Warner believes she can change the definition of racism to meet her needs: racism has nothing to do about race, in her mind: it is all about power and control. Evidently, she believes she has somehow been held down or held back by someone in power. While she is free to challenge her personal authorities all she likes, she cannot arbitrarily change the definition of a word simply because the guest on her show is making a smarter argument. Mr. Thor can claim a victory by default: he can simply say that his definition of racism is whatever he says it is. Victory assured.

Racism, back in the days when people really had national conversations instead of unending monologues, used to be pretty well understood along these lines. But as institutional racism was destroyed after the Civil War into cultural racism, and cultural racism was dismantled in the mid-20th Century into personal racism, the terms became muddied. For one thing, it is easier to claim that George Zimmerman is racist than to prove it; people can bandy about terms like prejudice, discrimination, and injustice as though they are equal terms. By doing so, you create a frothy haze that means anything can mean anything else. For example, a half-Hispanic George Zimmerman becomes all white; a half-white President becomes conveniently all black. This sort of rapidly convenient redefinition is made possible by people who cannot or will not understand the correct terminology.

Opposing the Democratic Party is racist, it seems, no matter what. Why? No reason in particular—just that it is convenient to do so as a shortcut to actual intelligent counterargument. When the President was accurately but inappropriately called a liar during a speech, the heckler was dismissed as a racist. Why? Why not, when nothing means anything. Heck, even a growing number of gays are dismissing supporters of traditional marriage as racist. Why not, again, when nobody seems to know what racism means.

And that takes us back to some earlier points. “Nobody” knows what racism means anymore because most of it has disappeared over the last 500 years. People eager to blame someone else for their problems are quick to use the R-word because, well, because maybe having a bad day is racist. One imagines that a Mississippi slave in 1810 would openly weep in joy to conceive a single, black mother of three with a part-time job living in a two-bedroom flat with a refrigerator, indoor plumbing, welfare assistance, public transportation, an ability to read, a telephone, and heat in the winter. Yet, we should not condemn a suburban taxpayer who thinks, quite honestly, she could be doing better if she stopped blaming him for everything and cared a little more about her life. Even if that taxpayer were white.

Another myth that could use some elimination: actually, white people understand racism very well. Most of them have been dismissed, ridiculed, embarrassed, or humiliated by being called racist. Some of them have written books on the subject, breaking down all the nuances and small particles and terms that comprise its many forms. Some of these people wrote these books generations, even centuries, ago and they are still accurate. What a smug, hideous conceit that only certain people—perhaps like Ms. Warner—presume to lecture others on what racism means and who can or cannot be a racist. One wonders if Mr. Thor is unable to understand this; perhaps he has some genetic predisposition—possibly because he is white—that prevents him from understanding what racism really is.

Because it sounds very much like he ought to, given that she treated him with such ugly contempt enough to make him qualify as a victim of racist attitude.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.