Please stop defending racism by calling racist things “racially charged”

(originally published December 2018. These were not hypothetical examples)

If a person writes racist graffiti (“n — ger”) all over a residence hall, or someone is screaming white supremacist statements at students of color, it’s widely understood that you can call these examples “racism.”

This is not “racially-charged vandalism.” It is racist vandalism.

The behavior is very disturbing, but what I find equally as disturbing is the use of euphemisms to describe the behavior.

The use of “n — ger” is commonly accepted in the most basic understanding of racism. This isn’t even subtle, and not recognizing it as racism fails the most basic test of human empathy. This isn’t like recognizing how terms like “urban” and “achievement gap” perpetuate systems of institutional racism, or even recognizing that “thug” is often used a a replacement for “n — ger”. This isn’t subtly dehumanizing commentary about how a black athlete is “naturally athletic.” These aren’t suggestions that a black student got in because of lower standards/”affirmative action” while ignoring the holistic conflict resolution skills black people have for dealing with racism.

Every journalist/headline writer who uses the term “racially charged” or “racial incident” to describe racism is being irresponsible as a journalist and perpetuating and normalizing racism.