You Worry Or Hesitate

Let's define our terms, but let's try something novel and consult a basic online dictionary. Merriam-Webster:

fascism
Main Entry: fas·cism
Pronunciation: 'fa-"shi-z&m also 'fa-"si-
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces
1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
- fas·cist /-shist also -sist/ noun or adjective, often capitalized
- fas·cis·tic /fa-'shis-tik also -'sis-/ adjective, often capitalized
- fas·cis·ti·cal·ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb, often capitalized

Nazi
Main Entry: Na·zi
Pronunciation: 'nät-sE, 'nat-
Function: noun
Etymology: German, by shortening & alteration from Nationalsozialist, from national national + Sozialist socialist
1 : a member of a German fascist party controlling Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler
2 often not capitalized a : one who espouses the beliefs and policies of the German Nazis : FASCIST b : one who is likened to a German Nazi : a harshly domineering, dictatorial, or intolerant person
- nazi adjective, often capitalized
- na·zi·fi·ca·tion /"nät-si-f&-'kA-sh&n, "nat-/ noun, often capitalized
- na·zi·fy /'nät-si-"fI, 'nat-/ transitive verb, often capitalized

racist
Main Entry: rac·ism
Pronunciation: 'rA-"si-z&m also -"shi-
Function: noun
1 : 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
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
- rac·ist /-sist also -shist/ noun or adjective

Ta notes: racism also includes unequal power and economic dynamics. For instance, white people can be racist and black people can be prejudiced, but it doesn't follow that black people can be racist. Yes, I know I said we were working with dictionary definitions. A more sophisticated dictionary would mention the dynamics but I don't subscribe to the OED. And just because:

prejudice
Main Entry: 1prej·u·dice
Pronunciation: 'pre-j&-d&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin praejudicium previous judgment, damage, from prae- + judicium judgment -- more at JUDICIAL
1 : injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights; especially : detriment to one's legal rights or claims
2 a (1) : preconceived judgment or opinion (2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge b : an instance of such judgment or opinion c : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics
synonym see PREDILECTION

Got that? Fascism = severe economic and social regimentation and forcible repression of opposition. Nazi = a harshly domineering, dictatorial, or intolerant person. Now read this, which starts here. It is particularly important to read these words by Bryan Suits carefully:

Does the fact that only Barak Obama is - well, the only presidential candidate that will appear on Oprah's show, does that make her a Nazi racist? Is it mutually exclusive that a black woman can be a also a Nazi? I don't think so. I frankly think she is a Nazi.

... I think she has a right to do what she is going to do, I think it makes her a racist though. And I'm not goin' use any kind of coded language or whatever. Anyone can be a racist, we all understand that right? Anyone can be prejudiced and I think she's prejudiced.

Listen, I'm not a genius, and I'm no fan of Oprah's. I have huge and utterly insignificant differences of opinion with Oprah, but this is beyond ridiculous. The FCC has rules about candidates and equal time that Oprah will obey. Anyone cannot be a racist. Oprah cannot be a Nazi. Think the people primarily concerned with the purity of the Aryan race would let a black woman join them for a bier and a putsch?

Anyone can be prejudiced. Almost everyone is prejudiced, to some extent. Two incidents from Sunday, within fifteen minutes.

1. I was driving through the tiny town in which I live when I saw five police cars with flashing lights surrounding one car on the street. I drove by slowly because the police have a carved-in-stone reputation for harassing people Driving While Black. Or Brown. Or Beige. Everyone knows it. When I dated black men I had to drive the car so no one concluded I was being kidnapped. So I expected to see a whole lot of young black men in handcuffs and to call my sister in half an hour to find out what'd happened. Instead, there were four young black men leaning against the car, laughing, and the police were laughing, and everyone looked happy, and except for the flashing lights it all looked so normal I almost crashed my car.

2. In the grocery store, I heard the piercing voice of a four-year-old.
Girl: Mommy, who was that brown lady?
Mom: (mumbled)
Girl: Mommy, who was that brown lady?
Mom: That was Luz.
Girl: But who was she?
Mom: She sometimes watches the other children and (mumbled.)
Girl: Is she your friend?
Mom: (mumbled.)
Girl: Mommy, is the brown lady your friend?
I came around the corner. The woman was putting groceries onto the checkout conveyor and not looking at the little girl - or, for that matter, the cashier or the other customers, many of whom were a lot less caucasian than she was.

This business of turning the language inside out to suit one's political purposes cheapens the public discourse and makes the ill-spoken person look stupid. Bryan Suits looks stupid and as if there's some violent disconnect between his thinking process and his frothing mouth. Here's the thing: if you're a public figure, everything you say, everything you do is now recorded digitally and there's no escaping what you've said and done anymore. Then: since Oprah is not a nazi or a Nazi and cannot be either, Bryan Suits is on record as a liar and a slanderer. What he said wasn't brave or iconclastic or witty. Nope. It was brutal and stupid, and he's tied to it for what may be the rest of his brief career in media.

I hope Suits gets a really quiet day job where a black person isn't head of Human Resources and tries really hard not to eat where black people cook or live where black people might walk their frou-frou purse dogs across his Bostonians - not because black people are prejudiced against white people but because black people have every right to be pissed about what one racist white guy says.

Ask Don Imus.