Words to be heretofore stricken from the English language.

"A racist."

As in, "That person is a racist."

There is no such thing as "a racist." This suggests a person is unique in practicing race-based bigotry. In fact, every single one of us both practices racism and benefits from a racist societal structure.

This can take the form of "overt" racist actions (using "the n word") or "subtle"/"passive" racist actions (picking a house in a "good" neighborhood; avoiding certain routes when walking to work; contributing to a matching 401(k); attending a prestigious university; eating a balanced, "healthful" diet). After all, a white person's ability to do any of these things does depend, in part, on hir benefitting from white privilege, from having had generations of stable family life, from living in an area with access to fresh foods and having the time and energy to prepare them.

It does not matter whether you chose something purposefully (or whether it is entirely out of your control), or whether you intended it to work against persons of color (or whether you were oblivious to its effects or even has nominally positive intentions). These actions, behaviors and attitudes still feed into the racist system.

Racism is not a quality that individual people hold; racism is a structure upon which we are all built and into which we all feed. Racism is a description of actions, behaviors and attitudes, not of people.

I will keep pounding this point for the rest of my days. And it holds steadfastly true as well for sexism, for classism, for ableism, for homophobia, and for all other sorts of bigotry and discrimination.

Effect, not intent, is what matters in the end.

Therefore, if you give a shit about making a difference, maybe you should stop getting so hung up over your (or anyone else's) intent, and start directing your concern toward the effect your life has on our situation.

Maybe if we would all start looking at things this way, we could affect some actual change.