Some years ago at function I attended at my daughter's school the principle made a statement to the assembly that part of the schools mission was to, and I paraphrase, " celebrate diversity and strive for blind equality". When I commented that she had served herself a pretty complex challenge she looked at me cow eyed and said " I don't know about that, it seems to me they go hand in hand". Understand that she was administering a school for "gifted" students.
Granted, this was a female person of color. I really expected nothing less but I was disappointed that even my wife at the time didn't divine the fundamental contradiction in that statement.
The point is that many people seem to have the tendency to latch on to buzz words and co-opt their meaning without really thinking about what they are saying.
"Racist" is another. To employ the terms "racism", "prejudice", and "bigotry", as the same concept is to my way of thinking extremely simple minded. On St' Pat's day I celebrate. Being partially Irish (I can still pass for white) I embrace the characterizations that the Irish hold as typical of their heritage. Poetry, Red headed girls, easy smiles, apocalyptic inebriation, the whole deal. At the feast of St. Joe we embrace the culture of our neighbors of Italian decent. To this day calling my friend Tony C. a Mick will get you thrown out of his house. He's as stereotypically dago as they come and he'll be the first to tell you. He's proud of it. Are we racists? Yes. We acknowledge different cultures and have the presence of mind to perceive that different cultures have different attributes.
Prejudice and bigotry have distinct definitions also. Not mutually exclusive but by no means synonymous. They are concepts that define much if not most of human history. As such I think it's fair to say they are concepts that are integral to humanity. Certainly more so than charity and benevolence. Healthy or not, I believe these traits are common to all of us to varying degrees. To me, hypocrisy is far more unwholesome.
