By that defenition everyone is racist. As I doubt there is a person alive who hasn't used someone's race in some sort of profanity at some point in their life.
I think it takes more than just saying an overexposed word to be a racist. Especially if that "race" of person is in front of you. Since chance are your just saying words to be hurtful.
Using two celeb examples...
I think the Mel Gibson episode was racist, or anti-sematic or anti-jew or whatever. Because there were no Jews present at the time. By specifically blaming one race for his issues, you can see whats truly in his heart.
Wheras the Kramer thing, I dont think it was racist. Inapropriate? Probably. But not racist. He was angry, and chose words to be as hurtful as possible. But I doubt he's racist towards blacks. Had it been a group of hispanics heckling him, he would have probably used hispanic slurs. Or if it was a group of whites, there probably would have been words that are hurtful towards whites. Yes it's hurtful, yes it's probably not a good idea in our overly sensitive PC society. But I dont think thats racist. If he was truly racist, he woulnd't have been performing in front of that audience.
I think as a society were to quick to label anyone and everything that even mentions another person's race, as a racist, or bring racist. If you use someone's color or ethnicity when describing them, your being racist. If you use any sort of slur, your a racist. If you mention emulate something thats popular in another race, and your not that race, your being racist. Or being fake. We've watered the word down so much by overexposure that I don't think anyone really knows what it is anymore. We already tried to define it, and as a group here on specktra, we coulnd't even agree on what being racist was. So how can we really call people racist, if we can't agree on what it is? Or how can we teach our children what not being racist is, if we can't as a society, agree on the meaning?
