system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I believe that "power + prejudice" is just a definition that people use to try to justify their own racism/sexism. CMV.

It's a definition that I've seen pop up lately, mostly on internet communities.  People define sexism or racism as "power + prejudice" or something like that.  The idea being that it's only *really* racism or sexism if it's coming from a person in a position of power (or not even personally being in power, but just as long as they're of a demographic where they're expected to be more likely to have power).

When people use this definition, it's just a convoluted way for people to have racist or sexist points of view, but still be able to claim that they aren't such, by basically saying "It's not sexism when we do it" or "it's not racism when we do it."  It allows them to avoid having to examine their own racist/sexist attitudes.

The reason people do this is because (generally) nobody wants to describe themselves as racist (or sexist).  You could have some ultra-conservative uncle spouting out some diatribe about how Mexicans and blacks are destroying the country.  If you ask him, point blank, if he's racist, he'll probably say no.  Using some excuse along the lines of "it's not racist if it's true."  People just don't like to admit when they're being racist, or sexist.  So they'll have complicated internal justifications to argue that they're not.  The whole "power + prejudice" definition is just another example of one of those internal justifications.  CMV.
gpt
I agree with most of your point. Most of what you see is probably justification for their own racism. However, many people who use the "power+prejudice" definition are talking about *systemic* racism, which is very real and the form of racism that has the most impact. It's a matter of an original concept being co-opted by jerks. Racism itself, while dickish and ignorant, doesn't have to be a huge problem. Systemic racism is. It's the difference between Old Man Franky hating "Japs" because of what he saw during the war and Everyday Dave not wanting to hire blacks because of widely-held stereotypes.