Dean letter: Not always racism

In my opinion, the word “racist” gets passed around a little too much. How can a person call someone else a racist when all they’ve said was that they didn’t agree with a certain idea or decision? We see this in many of the political topics such as the refugees coming into America. Now I’m not exactly sure where I stand on the whole refugee situation, but many people have been called racist for not agreeing to let them in. I personally think this is ridiculous. The definition of racism is the belief that one race is superior to another race. So if a person who disagrees says nothing about hating another race or that Americans are better, how are they being racist? Being cautious is another thing, and given our current situation involving ISIS, I think it’s reasonable for someone to disagree. I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist, because it does, and we should all stand against it. But I am saying that often I think people are way too quick at shouting the “r” word. Why can’t we as a society have friendly disagreements without throwing labels in each other’s faces?

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Dean letter: Not always racism."