Is Racism an absolute term?

By that, I mean, if you were to insult someone's accent or culture because they come from a specific part of a certain country, e.g. calling someone from Louisiana a 'hillbilly', would that make you racist against the whole of the US?

If not, could it even be called racism since people from Louisiana aren't a race?

P.S. Just to clarify, I have never used this insult myself, it's just an example...

Seeing as racism requires a belief that an ethnicity is above another, and the accent you can get growing up in Louisiana isn't related to your ethnicity, no. I'd say it's offensive to dismiss anybody with a southern accent as a hillbilly, but race isn't the issue here.

Racism is about race rather than cultural background. Accent is defined by cultural background.

Correct words are important. If they were not, saying that someone was murdered would be the same as someone being assaulted just because they are both a subset of violence. These are not the same and should remain different for basic comprehension.

No...you can call the person prejudiced towards southerners or hillbillies...but not racist. Could call them dumb as well.

No, there are very few actual races. You need to really try to be a racist. Your example is a case of discrimination.

That sounds more like bigotry and discrimination than racism because it does not definitively relate back to race. I think even if you insult, for example, a Black person's "Black southern" accent or their "Black" culture, it may sound racist but I don't think it's necessarily racism, but still falls under discrimination.

No but you would be idiotic and people wont like you, so you might aswell be a racist.

Most of this so called racism happening today in my opinion is the push of the social media. I mean they interpreted into something its not. When a million people hear about the leaked out sentence or statement being released, it becomes a racist circus. One person sees it as a racist remark, and then a million other join and it becomes something its not. Thats mostly what happens in my opinion.

Everyone's racist. Some people just are unware that they're hypocrtical.

Agreed. I remember a girl in high school who once said, "racist against girls". It took every fiber of my being not to facepalm into oblivion.

I hate it when people say only white people can be racist.

Racist is an absolute term. But many misuse the term.

Just like they misuse terms like literally.

Y Aye Man

Racism is so overused these days, it's lost most of it's inherent value as a descriptive term for true hatred of another group of people.

People need to learn the difference between hate and discrimination.

My neighbor doesn't hate black people. She just won't talk to black people because she thinks that blacks are subhuman apes who are genetically incapable of acting in a civilized manner.

Is that racism, or is it just discrimination?

That sounds like hate to me. Plus those are racist beliefs.

@MrGeezer: That's racism. But that's racism that completely ignores history. I'm pretty sure blacks were being terrorized for a long time in america.

I think it's racism if there is hatred behind it.

Making fun of people for their differences is not racism to me. We can all laugh at ourselves and others.