Amidst the continued protests in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, the topic of racism has been at the center of the issue. In line with this, Merriam-Webster has recently agreed to revise the meaning of the word in their dictionary after a 22-year-old emailed them saying that their definition is inadequate.
As of the moment, the word "racism" is defined in Merriam-Webster 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".
However, this definition was challenged by Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate who earned her degree in law, politics, and society at Drake University. According to Mitchum, it has come to her attention that people use the definition of the word based on the dictionary as support for their arguments.
Moreover, she said that the dictionary's definition has failed to mention "systemic oppression" as part of racism's definition. This, according to her pushed her to email the dictionary publisher since she knows what racism truly is, having experienced it herself.
According to CNN, Mitchum also added that racism is more than just people not liking someone, but it should also include how a group of people can be oppressed by a system. She also added that after emailing them of her concerns, she has engaged in a conversation with the publisher before she was informed of the revision of the entry.
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Persistence resulted to change
Independent also reported that the university from which Mitchum graduated from uploaded a screenshot of Merriam-Webster's response to her request.
In the email, Merriam-Webster stated that whiled their main focus is on the real-usage and meaning of a word and not to reflect or promote and y viewpoint, they have reached a conclusion that not mentioning systemic racism is also promoting a certain viewpoint.
Alumna Kennedy Mitchum knew there was more to racism than what appeared in @MerriamWebster's dictionary.
“It’s not just disliking someone because of their race,” she said.
Read the dictionary’s full response below. pic.twitter.com/0Yen4TrvuJ — Drake University (@DrakeUniversity) June 9, 2020
In addition, they added that the current definition may be doing a disservice to their readers. They also added that they also decided to take into account Mitchum's suggestion since people usually turn to dictionaries in order to further understand what a word really means and how it is used in a particular context. Thus, ignoring the fact that systemic oppression is part of the true definition of racism may cause confusion among its readers.
According to Vox, Merriam-Webster also stated that they are already in the process of drafting a revised entry for the definition of racism. Aside from this, they are also revising other entries that connote racism.
The dictionary publisher also expressed their gratitude towards Mitchum and said that the changes would not have been made without her persistence, and also apologized to her for the possibility that they might have offended her in not addressing the issue sooner.
Mitchum also said that she believes everyone needs to realize what the true meaning of the word is in order to fully understand the cause in fighting it amidst the Black Lives Matter protests in the US.
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