Merriam-Webster to revise racism definition after woman’s campaign
In a blow to arguments that end with “well, this is the dictionary definition of racism”, the dictionary definition of racism is being revised.
Editors at Merriam-Webster confirmed on Wednesday that they will revise the word’s definition after a campaign by a 22-year-old Drake University graduate, Kennedy Mitchum.
Mitchum wrote to the dictionary asking it to update its definition. She said that people often use the dictionary definition of racism to argue that something is not racist, on the basis that racism requires a personal dislike of someone based on their race to be real.
In an email to Merriam-Webster, Mitchum wrote: “Racism is not only prejudice against a certain race due to the color of a person’s skin, as it states in your dictionary,. It is both prejudice combined with social and institutional power. It is a system of advantage based on skin color.”
The definition, which incorporates the idea that prejudice alone is not racism (rather, racism requires a system of institutional power behind it in order to function) was put forward by the sociologist Patricia Bidol in the 1970s.
The current definition in MerriamWebster reads:
Editors have conceded that the entry has not been rewritten in decades. “This entry has not been revised in decades,” Merriam-Webster editor-atlarge, Peter Sokolowski, told the Times, adding that the new definition would be an “improvement of the wording”.
Editors added that although the dictionary aims to reflect the real-world usage of a word, rather than a particular viewpoint, “we have concluded that omitting any mention of the systemic aspects of racism promotes a certain viewpoint in itself … It also does a disservice to readers of all races.”
The decision has come amid a wave of international activism after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which will probably leave some questioning whether there is a place for activism in the dictionary. But Sokolowski said that there had to be a place for it.
“Activism doesn’t change the dictionary,” he told the New York Times, adding: “Activism changes the language.”