Defining Racism

I think I can help Howard Rosenberg in his attempt to discover whether he is a racist (“Cynical, Arrogant, Dumb--but Never a Racist,” Feb. 26).

His eloquent self-defense made clear one crucial point: He doesn’t know what racism is. Taking all his recent relevant commentaries together, it becomes clear that he believes racism is overt and extreme hatred toward a race; that if you wear a hood and do a lot of cross-country traveling with hemp and lighter fluid, you fit the bill; anything less and you’re just folks.

He refers to “disagreeing with someone else’s definition of racism” as if the arbitrary assignment of meaning to a word is a personal right and there are infinite possible definitions of racism. There are not. There is only one. Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race (Webster’s). Therefore, when Andy Rooney (allegedly) says that black people have made themselves genetically inferior because the least intelligent ones drop out of school and have lots of babies (unlike white social dropouts, who presumably drop out for reasons other than native stupidity, such as their environment and individual circumstances), not much assistance is required to identify this sentiment as racist.

When Howard Rosenberg defended this by saying, heck, isn’t that just another way of saying what the NAACP has been saying for years?, that was racism. When one makes such defenses consistently (such as Mr. Rosenberg’s defense of Jimmy the Greek), one can be fairly sure one is indeed a racist. Mr. Rosenberg protests the inevitable reaction to his defense of Mr. Rooney by saying, gee, if you criticize a black person these days everybody calls you a racist. That’s disingenuous. And arrogant. And dumb.

ANDREW CHRISTIE, Los Angeles