On the matter of definitions and context
Recently we had a forumer argue with us over a moderation decision based on the definition of the word racist. The forumer argued that the term covered religion as well, so he was unfairly banned. He claims that a.) one meaning of racist is “Discriminatory especially on the basis of race or religion” and b.) that definition is in a recent edition of the OED. Let’s take a look.
I don’t have the full, unabridged version of the OED here, but my college library should have it. However, since it’s 4:30am in the morning and I’m at home, that’ll have to wait ‘till tomorrow. However, the Compact OED is searchable online, and my Mac already comes prepackaged with the American Oxford Dictionary.
The Compact OED defined the term racist as a derivative of the word racism, and that term is defined as:
• noun 1 the belief that there are characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to each race. 2 discrimination against or antagonism towards other races.
— DERIVATIVES racist noun & adjective.
The American Oxford Dictionary (as installed on my Mac), which contains the full volume of the New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition, also defined it as a derivative of the word racism, and that term is defined as:
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
• prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief : a program to combat racism.
No mention on religion. What about the Merriam-Webster dictionary I’m using for college? They, too, defined it as a word related to racism and provided the meaning for racism instead:
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
No religion references either. Let’s see what the internet sites said:
Dictionary.com unabridged also said it is a related form of racism and gave the definition for racism instead:
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Nope, not there. What about the American Heritage Dictionary ? A search for racist returned the definition for racism instead:
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
Nope. No mention of religion still. Hrm… let’s check out what WordReference.com said:
Aha… there it is. Case closed? No… see, wordreference.com had sourced Princeton University’s WordNet project, so there’s still a potential problem, whether it’s a bad data feed from wordnet, bad interpretation by wordreference’s staff, or the script that processes the data from wordnet didn’t parse the data correctly. I could come up with more reasons for the error, but the best thing for us to do at this point is to look at the source ourselves and see what they really said :
Noun
S: (n) racist, racialist (a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others)
Adjective
S: (adj) racist (based on racial intolerance) “racist remarks”
S: (adj) racist, antiblack, anti-Semite (discriminatory especially on the basis of race or religion)
Aha. We’re getting somewhere. Let’s view the page. I’ve provided a screenshot:
I spot the interpretation error already. Can you?
OK. Here’s the problem. WordNet is not a dictionary, but a system that shows relationships between words. Here’s their official explanation of it on their About page:
WordNet® is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. The resulting network of meaningfully related words and concepts can be navigated with the browser. WordNet is also freely and publicly available for download. WordNet’s structure makes it a useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing.
So, as you can see, it’s listing related words to racist, and anti-semitism came up as one of its related words, and suddenly the definition makes sense, since anti-semitism could mean discrimination to Jews as a race, and Jews as a religion:
So, to prove that statement, I did a search for the word “mother”, half-heartedly expecting it to be related to the word “father” since they’re both parents. Guess what… it listed father, as well as some definitions that don’t make sense unless you read it in context. The same term on WordReference.com provided a confusing look at definition for the term. Such poor information presentation design makes it easy for someone to take things out of context.