Racism

Barbara Smith

Racism is not primarily a set of negative attitudes or behaviours on the part of individual whites. These negative attitudes and behaviours are grievous and sometimes fatal, but they are in fact symptoms of a system whose purpose is not merely to make people of colour feel badly but to maintain white power and control.

Comments on Definition from COR Participants:

[lily: the negative attitudes/behaviors and hate generated towards people of color seem to me to be a tool . It also makes more sense to me that when talking about racism we’re also talking about a systematic hierarchy of power.]