Merriam-Webster to change definition of ‘racism’ after email from Missouri woman

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Merriam-Webster is revising its definition of racism after a Missouri woman’s emails claimed it fell short of including the systemic oppression of certain groups of people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kennedy Mitchum&comma; who lives in the St&period; Louis suburb Florissant&comma; said people would argue with her about the definition of racism and she realized the problem was in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary&comma; KMOV-TV reported&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Merriam-Webster&&num;8217&semi;s current definition of racism<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&colon; 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<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2a&colon; a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>b&colon; a political or social system founded on racism<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>3&colon; racial prejudice or discrimination<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>It’s not just disliking someone because of their race<&sol;i>&comma;” Mitchum wrote in a Facebook post&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>This current fight we are in is evidence of that&comma; lives are at stake because of the systems of oppression that go hand-in-hand with racism&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The revision comes against the backdrop of protests around the country against police brutality after the death of George Floyd&comma; a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned his neck to the ground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Merriam-Webster online dictionary first defines racism as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>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&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mitchum&comma; who recently graduated with a degree in law&comma; politics and society&comma; said that definition was too simple&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>So&comma; a couple weeks ago&comma; I said this is the last argument I’m going to have about this&period;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;So&comma; I emailed them about how I felt about it&period; Saying this needs to change&comma;<&sol;i>” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Peter Sokolowski&comma; editor at large at Merriam-Webster&comma; said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that the dictionary’s second definition is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>divided to express&comma; first&comma; explicit institutional bias against people because of their race&comma; and&comma; second&comma; a broader implicit bias that can also result in an asymmetrical power structure&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>This second definition covers the sense that Ms Mitchum was seeking&comma; and we will make its wording even more clear in our next release&comma;<&sol;i>” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>This is the kind of continuous revision that is part of the work of keeping the dictionary up to date&comma; based on rigorous criteria and research we employ in order to describe the language as it is actually used&period;<&sol;i>”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed2c23cc115">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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