Marcia’s Reviews > So You Want to Talk About Race > Status Update

The issues with racist statements (other than they're awful to say) are that they perpetuate stereotypes that maintain oppression. We should look how some adjectives systematically impact people of color, whereas white people are often viewed on a case by case basis, such as laziness, being late to work, weak-willed, or threatening.

Racism and economic status overlap but aren't the same. Racism is involved in everything, but nothing is solely about racism. Patterns, whether or not your actions were racist in nature, make events racist.

Racism is built into our society. We want to point with pride to our family's culture. We are each unique.

In other words, the notion of racism is not yes/no or good/bad.