@veralynn We're going to hit the comment depth limit either with this posting or the next it's kind of hard to tell. So this will be my final words to you.
I've read what you are writing. I disagree with your premise from the get go. I find it to be wrong headed and rooted in a circular logic based on a narrative of fear and disempowerment, with nothing more than a "now you know". But what you are teaching is just ignorant.
First your definition of racism is based on a definition which is loaded, it's not balanced and it is inherently biased. This is because it is parroting a narrative which confirms your own personal biases, rather than challenging you to think for yourself.
What is racism?..
You: "Oppression by those in power based on skin tone".
Me: "Any judgement made about a person based upon skin tone or other cultural factors".
You are trying to single out prejudice as a standalone quality, somehow separate from these "ism's" but it is not. It is the root of a weed that digs deep into the human psyche. This weed has seeds and it spreads like wildfire. The seeds are divisiveness and fear.
Anytime you make judgments about a person based on anything other than your direct interactions with that person, you are being prejudiced, because you are prejudging. That's ignoring anything else you may learn and shutting your mind to new information. It is confirming personal bias and that in a nutshell is just ignorant.
Racism is a form of prejudice because you are "prejudging" based on skin tone.
Sexism is a form of prejudice because you are "prejudging" based on gender.
All of these "ism's" are a disease that stems from fear, rooted in prejudice.
Prejudice is simply ignorance and fear.
Here is why I am right and you are wrong.
Any form of prejudice, Is based on ignorance. You cannot "know" anything about a person based on anything other than your direct interactions with that person or their artifacts (things left behind like writings). Ignoring new information in favor of broad sweeping generalizations is shutting your mind and shutting your mind is actively choosing ignorance over knowledge.
This means that when anyone says the "white males are holding us back", they are being racist. It doesn't matter at all who says it. It stinks just as bad as saying "black men are more likely to be criminals" or "Latinas are hot headed". It's also as stupid as saying "Brunettes are smarter than blondes" and means just about as much. These are all ignorant thoughts from uneducated minds, and therefore safely ignored.
It's all rooted in the same place, ergo it's all the same thing.
Saying "a group which is not in a position of power cannot be ignorant", is you yourself being racist and spreading a racist and bigoted narrative.
You do not need to be in power to be ignorant, therefore you do not need to be in power to be prejudiced. In fact you are more likely to be prejudiced when you are not in power, than when you are in power. Point of fact, those who are not in power, don't typically understand why they seem to have no power.
It is so much easier to blame someone else for all the wrong things in your life as you look around you, than it is to look inwardly, take stock of your condition and draw upon your own strength and acknowledge your own failings.
Because to wield power requires you to not only grab it, but hold it and use it wisely and here's the secret of power...
Power is not anything anyone "hands you". Sure some people get a silver spoon in their mouth from birth and have an edge in attaining power, but in gaining this edge for attaining it, they lose out on the most important component which is holding onto it and wielding it properly.
Look for a moment at Queen Elizabeth. She is inarguably the most powerful woman in the world. Yet her reign has seen the decimation of the British Empire and the loss of numerous territories. Why? Because it was only later in life that she learned to wield this great power she had attained as a matter of birthright.
She is white, she is female. Yet her power comes from within herself. Her charisma, charm, wit and intelligence are what have allowed her to have the most successful and longest reign in the history of the empire.
Her child, Prince Charles is widely considered a clown and a laughing stock. Yet he is a white male who was inarguably born to a life of power and prestige. He has lost his power, the people have very little respect for him.
Compare Prince Charles to Otto von Habsburg who was the last surviving member of the Habsburg dynasty. A line of dynastic rulers both male and female who held supreme sway in European affairs for nearly 1,000 years.
Otto spent his entire life as a "beggar king", trying desperately to reclaim his power. Pleading his case desperately to any who would listen. A power he was entitled to by birthright, but which had been taken away from him by WWI and the rise of the nation-state.
What he never realized until near his death was that the dynamics of power had changed.
The rise of the nation state actually democratized power. No longer were you either entitled to power, by birthright, nor were you limited in power by birthright.
Does this mean that the "powerful can be oppressed" by the masses? No, it just means that you need to understand power in order to wield it. A great example of rising from the ashes this way is Karl von Habsburg. Unlike his father he has taken an entirely different tact. He realized that what gave people power is not some inborn "right to power", but what Nietzche called the "Will to power".
It is because of this realization that he has managed to restore his family to a seat of power, but in the business and philanthropic world, not as regents supreme of a European empire.
This is the long way 'round of getting to the heart of my argument. Everyone has advantages in life. You are born with skills, talents, maybe even a name that means something.
You have an innate power within. A power that no one else has. The power to be "YOU". There are external power structures. But these structure are not outside of your own control. The same structures you complain are holding you back are there to support you. But for that to happen, for others to cede a little power to you, you need to demonstrate that you understand the true nature of power.
This means you need to stand up and declare that no one has power over you, but you. If you believe that someone has power over you, then you need to realize that it is only because you have handed them your power. It was a choice you made, but not one you have to continue to make.
You are not a slave and you are not being oppressed. This is true regardless of your skin color or what is sitting between your legs.
Any chains you wear are of your own making. When you preach a doctrine of "victimization", you encourage people to accept these chains you have made for yourself and wear them too.
The problem with this narrative is that there are many who fall in love with their chains. They sit alone in the dark, in chains. They imagine that the collar around their neck is made of gold. They mistake their master's whip for love.
The collar is not gold, it is made of your own feces. There is no master, except yourself and you wield no whip. What you believe to be a whip, is a a knife. A knife which is wicked sharp, made by your own hand from your own hatred, tipped with the poison of fear. A knife you use to cut your own flesh leaving wounds that fester and refuse to heal. Then you hold these wounds up to the rest of the world and you cry out "look at what he made me do!".
The saddest part of this narrative is that there are no masters to conquer but ourselves and no demons but the ones within.
If you are able to read this and understand it, then you are able to understand that you have no masters that you do not choose for yourself. Do not cede the only power anyone really has, "your own will to power", to anyone for any reason. Look around you and think for yourself, then stand up and claim your own power, no matter the cost. You'll kill the slave within, but that is the true price of power. The rejection of the idea that you are somehow a victim.
For the world to accept your claims though, you have to be both in the world and of the world. You cannot simply choose to "not be one of us" and then try to wield power over us. America is a cultural melting pot. Sure, keep your cultural artifacts and tell us about how great that culture was. But keep in mind, by being allowed to be part of this culture, you have left that culture behind. You are not a hyphenated anything. If you are in America, try being an American and stop trying to hyphenate yourself, notice that hyphen is a divider and remember it's just a sharp knife and you're cutting yourself with it by splitting your identity like that.
You are simply an American and that means you have to some extent sacrificed the chains of your previous culture in order to avail yourself of the opportunities that America affords only to her children. None of whom are cutting themselves on a hyphen.