For those inclined, please email Meriam-Webster, to show your support (or lack there-of) here..

https://www.merriam-webster.com/contact-us
Merriam-Webster Inc.
47 Federal Street
Springfield, MA 01105
Phone: (413) 734-3134

***************************************

American dictionary Merriam-Webster will change its definition of the word racism at the suggestion of a young Black woman who wanted it to better reflect the oppression of people of colour.

Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, contacted Merriam-Webster, which has published its dictionaries since 1847, to propose updating the term.

"I basically told them that they need to include that there's a systematic oppression upon a group of people," she told the local CBS affiliate KMOV.

"It's not just, 'Oh, I don't like someone.'"

Merriam-Webster's editorial manager, Peter Sokolowski, confirmed to AFP that the definition would be modified after Mitchum's request.

The dictionary currently offers three definitions of racism, and Sokolowski said the second definition touches on Mitchum's point - but that "we will make that even more clear in our next release".

In the current version of the second definition, racism is "a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles," and "a political or social system founded on racism".

"This is the kind of continuous revision that is part of the work of keeping the dictionary up to date, based on rigorous criteria and research we employ in order to describe the language as it is actually used," Sokolowski said.

One of the dictionary's editors told Mitchum that the definitions of other words that are "related to racism or have racial connotations" would also be updated, without specifying which ones.

"We apologise for the harm and offense we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner," the editor wrote, according to a message published by Drake University and retweeted by Mitchum.
_____________________________

Merriam-Webster's current definition of racism

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

2a: a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles

b: a political or social system founded on racism

3: racial prejudice or discrimination

“It’s not just disliking someone because of their race,” Mitchum wrote in a Facebook post. “This current fight we are in is evidence of that, lives are at stake because of the systems of oppression that go hand-in-hand with racism.”

The revision comes against the backdrop of protests around the country against police brutality after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned his neck to the ground.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary first defines racism as “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.”

Mitchum, who recently graduated with a degree in law, politics and society, said that definition was too simple.

“So, a couple weeks ago, I said this is the last argument I’m going to have about this.

I know what racism is, I’ve experienced it time and time and time again in a lot of different ways, so enough is enough.

"So, I emailed them about how I felt about it. Saying this needs to change,” she said.

Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam-Webster, said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that the dictionary’s second definition is “divided to express, first, explicit institutional bias against people because of their race, and, second, a broader implicit bias that can also result in an asymmetrical power structure.”

“This second definition covers the sense that Ms Mitchum was seeking, and we will make its wording even more clear in our next release,” he said.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/merriam-webster-to-change-definition-of-racism-after-email-from-missouri-woman-1004471.html