A good place to begin evaluating the social justice Left’s redefinition of racism is to point out that power is far too variegated and complex to align so neatly with a simple racial hierarchy. By any measure, a Korean-American journalist with a J.D. from Harvard, who joins the editorial board of one of the world’s most influential media outlets, is a powerful person. The same cannot be said of the online adversaries who trolled her, or the white working-class Trump voters she berated as “literal Nazis.” Jeong, like the social justice leftists who deride the idea that her anti-white tweets were racist, wants things both ways, to exercise power while retaining the moral authority and expressive latitude that come from claiming oppression. An unemployed factory worker in the Rust Belt, by contrast, is obliged by his vast white privilege to self-censor constantly, lest some unguarded remark betray his bigotry and fortify the power structure that victimizes non-whites. If he proves too obtuse to recognize this duty, or too hateful to discharge it, that’s only further proof of racism—his and America’s.
(William Voegeli, "Racism, Revised," Claremont Review of Books 18 [fall 2018]: 24-30, at 28)
Note from KBJ: The "social justice Left" is engaged in what philosophers call "persuasive definition," of which there are four versions:
- Expand the denotation of a word (such as "racism") that has a negative connotation, with the aim of "persuading" people to form a negative attitude toward things that now fall inside the expanded denotation. Example: Defining "racism" so that white people who refuse to admit being racist are, eo ipso, racist.
- Contract the denotation of a word (such as "racism") that has a negative connotation, with the aim of "persuading" people not to form a negative attitude toward things that now fall outside the contracted denotation. Example: Defining "racism" so that black, Asian, or other non-white people cannot be, and hence are not, racist.
- Expand the denotation of a word (such as "liberty") that has a positive connotation, with the aim of "persuading" people to form a positive attitude toward things that now fall inside the expanded denotation. Example: Defining "liberty" as doing or having what is (thought to be) essential to a good life.
- Contract the denotation of a word (such as "liberty") that has a positive connotation, with the aim of "persuading" people not to form a positive attitude toward the things that now fall outside the contracted denotation. Example: Defining "liberty" so that it excludes freedom of speech.
Leftists are masters of this technique, which is manipulative rather than respectful (and therefore questionable on moral grounds). The end is to change attitudes, and ultimately behavior. The means involve word play. People who are unaware of what is going on can easily fall prey to the technique.
