The past few weeks have seen the rise of major protests of alleged mistreatment of black men by white cops. At the forefront of all the protests is the charge that not only are the individual policemen guilty of singling out black men for no good reason, but that the entire “system” is racist.
Most white Americans bristle at the blanket accusation of systemic racism, but the anger, the rioting, the looting and finally the execution style shooting of two policemen sitting in a squad care that have followed the high profile cases in the news are demanding attention. Unfortunately, the debate gets carried on without agreed upon definitions, making communication and resolution impossible. This seems to be by design.
In postmodern academia language is viewed as a "mask to power". So those who desire to obtain power need to control the language and make it serve a particular purpose because, in theory, that is what the ruling class has done. The redefinition of the word “racist” is a chilling and Orwellian signpost toward a troubling future.
