Reply #102: a little myopic there

[m berst]

"Members of one race being intrinsically superior to members of another" sounds nice and tidy if we ignore the centuries of brutality that have been justified by this prejudice.

Since we are policial acitivists, and we are liberals, we are interested in the actual social ills caused by the attitude represnted by the word, not its dictionary definition.

When we say racism as liberals, it is presumed to mean "the effects of racism in human terms" because that is the case with all liberal positions. When we say we support education, for example, it goes without saying that what we mean is that we support the benefits that education provides to real people and the difference that it makes in their lives.

A "tornado" is a "meteorological phenomenon featuring circling winds of high velocity" which sounds pretty innocuous - provided you aren't in its path. The you might choose some other words to describe it.