What is &quot;racism&quot;?
<p>The phrase &quot;the best applicant should get the job&quot; is considered racist.</p>
<p>A college professor is suspended for refusing to give preferential treatment to black students.</p>
<p>Quoting MLK famous &quot;I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color
of their skin but by the content of their character&quot; can get you accused of being a racist.</p>
<p>People get fired as racists for saying explicitly color-blind things such as &quot;all lives matter.&quot;</p>
<p>On the other hand the following is not considered racist:</p>
<p>A college professor who said on TV &quot;white lives don't matter&quot; gets promoted.</p>
<p>A mayor who kneels in front of BLM to apologize for the entire white race, and therefore implying that the entire race shares a collective guilt, is praised.&quot;</p>
<p>A TV commentator who claims that white people broke social contract and therefore black people not only can, but should loot and burn the cities, is still hosting his show.</p>
<p>Uber orders drivers to direct their passengers who ask for restaurant recommendations to restaurants owned by African Americans, regardless of the comparative quality with other restaurants.</p>
<p>Numerous claims that all white people, regardless of their socioeconomic status, share collective guilt, claims that are eerie similar to Nazi claims of Jewish collective guilt, are promoted on TV.</p>
<p>A witch hunt for any possible sign of white supremacy, even as ridiculous as suspending a youtube chess channel for phrases such as &quot;in this position white has an advantage&quot;, while completely ignoring and even praising the most outrageous anti-white speeches and actions...</p>
<p>It seems I don't understand what's being meant by &quot;racism&quot; these days. Thus the questions:</p>
<p>Is the term &quot;racism&quot; defined in US law? It ought to be, given the existence of &quot;hate crimes&quot;. What's the definition? Is the definition color-blind (as hate toward another race) or color-specific (as hate toward specific races)?</p>
<p>Ditto hate crime. Are attacks against white people because of the color of their skin considered hate crimes?</p>
<p>Encouraging violence against white people in the current situation is not unlike shouting &quot;fire&quot; in a crowded theater. Why speeches by TV personalities who encourage violence are not reined in? Is there a mechanism for lay people to challenge that?</p>

<p>The term &quot;racism&quot; is a political one, not a legal one, which refers to a belief. It is not illegal in the US, and it is a belief that is protected under the First Amendment. There is a legal construct, &quot;discrimination on the basis of race&quot;, which enters into laws. For example, you may not discriminate in employment on the basis of race: but those law don't distinguish discrimination in favor and discrimination against.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are crimes which additionally discriminate on the basis of some protected class (see &quot;discrimination&quot;). Assaulting a person because they are white, black, Catholic, atheist, male or female is a hate crime. Everybody falls into one or more protected categories (everybody has some race, religion including lack, and sex) – hate crime laws add &quot;because of&quot;, for those extra penalties. Assalting a white, black, male or female person is not a hate crime, by itself.</p>
<p>The government is not the only source of reigning in of speech that you don't like, in fact, it isn't way of suppressing speech that you don't like at all, at least as long as we have the First Amendment. An employer has the right to hire a racist, or to fire a racist, at least until the law changes.</p>

equal-protection