[cgbg]

I always am amused when folks around here calls someone a “stupid racist”.

Obviously a lot of very intelligent folks throughout history were racists.

Mr. Watson was one of them.

[quilterdebbie]

I agree!

[SixIron]

I knew him well. He always spoke his mind.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "Obviously a lot of very intelligent folks throughout history were racists."

A lot of them, and of ALL "races." Using the term is itself a support of the concept that "race" is a reality. Only the PERCEPTION of race is a reality, given that today the US changes its definitions from time to time. Most recently:

1) American Indian or Alaska Native
2) Asian
3) Black or African American
4) Hispanic or Latino
5) Middle Eastern or North African
6) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
7) White

Updates to Race/Ethnicity Standards for Our Nation United States Census Bureau.

So long ago the now-abandonned taxonomy was:

1) Caucasoid
2) Negroid
3) Mongoloid
4) Capoid
5) Australoid

The BELIEF that racial groups are somehow distinct by "color terminology" and that values can be assigned to these is fallacious. An associated BELIEF that a taxonomic hierarchy somehow defines "race" is also demonstrably fallacious.

Thus, the ludicrous assertion which I have heard on the streets of NYC so long ago -- "Blacks cannot be racist" -- is a laugh, for the sentence itself relies on "race" and then says one "race" is not "racist."

Use to term to argue for group characteristics of a certain value(s) different from another group is "racist" for it builds on those shifting sands of language. Use "race" and one is "racist."

Some of the long abandoned terms and taxonomies for "race" are a hoot, should one want to stroll into the historical weeds.

[pburiak]

Pattern recognition is “racism” and “bigotry” to many people, unfortunately.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Obviously a lot of very intelligent folks throughout history were racists.

Mr. Watson was one of them.

Would it be "racist" to observe that Africans have darker skin than Europeans, on average? Is it any more "racist" to observe that on average, Africans underperform Europeans on standard intelligence tests? Or that Africans, on average, outperform Europeans on the 100 meter dash?

[ifinnegan]

Watson wasn’t racist.