A black woman from Missouri asked Merriam-Webster to update its definition of the word ‘racism.’
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Kennedy Mitchum emailed officials of the Merriam-Webster dictionary after she noticed the shortcomings of the word’s definition. According to her, the current definition is too simple and surface level.
Merriam-Webster currently 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.”
Image: Christian Gooden/AP
With this, Mitchum wrote to officials and said racism is “both prejudice combined with social and institutional power. It is a system of advantage based on skin color”. To her surprise, she got a reply the next day.
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After some back and forth, officials of Merriam-Webster agreed to update the dictionary definition of the word. Officials also said that the issue needs to be addressed sooner than later. According to reports, the revision could be done by August.
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