Merriam-Webster has recently updated its definition of what it means to be racially color-blind. And, in a nutshell, it means it’s impossible to not be racist.
Under the second definition of “color-blind” it says the meaning of the word is “not influenced by differences of race” and especially “treating all people the same regardless of race.”
Ahh, but there’s a catch. According to the expanded definition, you can still be racist if you treat all people the same regardless of race. Why is that? According to the recently added note to the definition “While sense 2 can be used with positive connotations of freedom from racial prejudice, it often suggests a failure or refusal to acknowledge or address the many racial inequities that exist in society, or to acknowledge important aspects of racial identity.”
According to @MerriamWebster you are racist even when you're not. pic.twitter.com/GUoABtGisR
— Matt Margolis (Gab/MeWe/Heroes: @MattMargolis) (@mattmargolis) March 31, 2021
This Orwellian revision was not announced by Merriam-Webster, and I think it’s obvious why. Based on this definition, treating people equally regardless of race doesn’t exempt you from being racist. Unless you’re willing to buy into the subjective notion of what the radical left believes to be structural racism in our society, it doesn’t matter if you treat everyone the same, you are still part of the problem. Believing in racial equality doesn’t make you not racist, you have to believe in racial equity.
It’s the typical Orwellian moving of the goalposts. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was that people would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of the skin. For the most part, that dream has been achieved. There will always be people who hate others based on race, religion, and other reasons, but society as a whole has made tremendous progress on the issue of race. African-Americans have served in the highest levels of government, have built successful businesses, and become some of America’s most beloved cultural figures. Yet there are those who are constantly trying to change the very essence of what it means to be an equal society. If a country that elected a black man president despite his gross inexperience, and then reelected him despite his failures is still considered a racist country, and failure to agree with that notion makes you racist no matter how equal you treat everybody then everyone is at risk at being considered racist. If it’s not enough to treat people equally, then the only thing we can conclude is that the gatekeepers of our language and culture will never allow this country to achieve Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream because they simply don’t want us to.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter, Gab, Facebook, MeWe, Heroes, Rumble, and CloutHub.
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