My dear friend, say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay I know we don't always agree on things, and that's okay. In fact, I think it's really valuable to be able to listen to the opinions and ideas of those who disagree with you and engage with those ideas rather than simply dismiss them. That's why I'm writing to you about the definition of racism essay, because I know I'm about to tell you things you probably won't agree with. But please, listen to me. If I were to call you a racist, you would passionately deny it, but you and I both know that I wouldn't be the first person to say so. I don't know if anyone has ever taken the time to try to explain that maybe the definitions of racism are different, and that maybe that's the cause of the disagreement. I think your definition of racism is probably more or less an act of deliberate discrimination against someone because of their race – correct me if I'm wrong. This is not my definition, and I don't think it should be yours either, even though many people you know and agree with think the definition is correct. It's simply not good enough and doesn't capture the full picture of racism, as argued by Robin DiAngelo in his book White Fragility. I know what I say may not jibe with mainstream culture or popular media, but when have they ever been the primary source of knowledge? That said, I recognize that what we see around us is often what we assume to be true, so when the media tells us that racism is a single, intentional act of discrimination in isolation, we often just believe it. If we add to this the basic assumption that we all have about ourselves, namely that we are good and moral people, it is easy to come to the conclusion that we cannot, in any way, be connected to the issue of racism. I know I had come to the same conclusion not too long ago. So what changed my mind? I realized, quite recently actually, that I have a race. For some people, this might seem like the strangest statement. You obviously have a race: you are a human being! To that I would say this: It's not that simple. There are things you don't notice or appreciate until you really focus on them, and quite simply, my race – our race – has never been one of them. We had very similar childhoods, you and I, and I suspect you may feel the same way. We both grew up white, in white families, in white neighborhoods. Being white was the default characteristic, the unmarked trait, and if race was talked about, it was always someone else's race, not yours. I realized that not only is being white my race, but also that the entire society we live in is racialized. Race matters, and not just other races but yours too, and that's the truth, even if you wish it didn't. We're both white, and that's never been an issue, right? Why? Do you think anyone of color living in Australia would say the same thing? I don't think so, and I don't think you could say that without knowing you're lying to yourself. You know as well as I do that power in Australian society is held almost exclusively by white people, and mostly by white men. This clearly has something to do with race, as it is no coincidence that all elite and powerful levels of society do not represent the racial diversity of Australian society as a whole. This is where your definition of racism needs to change. The structures of our society favor and privilege the white population, and this is the core of structural racism. In order for a definitionof racism includes this type of prejudice, inherent in a system, it cannot only concern immoral people who commit individual acts of discrimination. The reality is that racism is a complex and nuanced social dynamic into which the entire population is socialized. When you consider just one action, isolated and distant from the society in which it was carried out, it makes you lose much of the image. The full picture includes a complex, interconnected system that is tied to the history of a particular society and it is important to recognize that history and who wrote it, i.e. who had the power and why. It's really not difficult to see where the power has been in Australian society. It is not hidden at all, given the racial profiling of the elite and politicians. We also had a White Australia policy, but we started colonization with the persecution of the indigenous population. I don't believe you when you try to tell me “Sure, but that was then, and our society isn't like that now – everyone is the same.” I wish I could believe you, but I can't because it's simply not true. It must be recognized that not everyone starts out on equal footing, and recognizing the impact of these historical power structures, and their role in the modern day, is key to understanding that something like Adam Goodes booing is, and must be , , racist. I can hear what you're saying back to me, that they were just booing, and how can that be a racist act? That's the point, only a fraction of the story is about the "act". It's about historical context, which Coram and Hallinan highlight in their article. The concept of racism is misunderstood in Australian society as something overt and intentional, but that's not true. I'm trying to show you how it should be seen as an element of social structure. I know this broader definition might seem too philosophical to you. It's harder to see and point fingers than someone's individual act and it doesn't seem concrete enough, right? Well yes and no. Structural racism often has no easy-to-see boundaries and pervades all levels of society, but I believe the consequences are much easier to see. I know that once I became aware of this, I could recognize the impacts everywhere. When I was looking for a job earlier this year, I would research a company and its background. What I found shocked me, but somehow, at the same time, it wasn't a surprise at all. On every single "Our People" type page, almost every person listed was an old white guy. Sure there have been some exceptions, but overall, time and time again this pattern has occurred. I know this would not have been intentional, and these companies would not have actively sought out these people, but they went with the flow of the system, the system that is full of structural racism. So with this broader definition of racism, I hope you agree with me that structural racism exists throughout society and is a product of the historical context of our society. Now I want to discuss something that I know we don't agree on, so once again, please hear me out. Climbing on Uluru was permanently closed in October this year, but the traditional owners, Anangu, have been asking people not to climb the sacred site since the 1990s. Do you think not recognizing their desires, and by extension not recognizing Indigenous culture, is racist? I urge you to think about the context here, everything from colonization to the stolen generation. There is a long and sad history in Australia where the white population, at best, ignores indigenous peoples and, at worst, actively persecutes and kills them. That story is not dead and can still be seen today in a wide range of statistics about the "gap", which is at the heart of the "Close the Gap" campaign.