ADL Again Updates Its Definition of Racism After Condemning, Then Forgiving Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg speaks with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on The View Tuesday.

The Anti-Defamation League has once again changed its definition of racism over a backlash for how it had defined the concept, amid the controversy over Whoopi Goldberg’s comments about the Holocaust.

The ADL has played a mollifying role in the controversy involving the host of The View, who was suspended this week for saying on air that the Holocaust was “not about race.”

ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt initially condemned Goldberg, before accepting her apology and appearing on The View for a thoughtful discussion of why she was wrong.

But the exposure of the ADL drew attention to how the organization defines racism on its website. A few years ago, its definition was a commonly accepted one.

It defined “racism” as follows: “The belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should be segregated and apart from another.”

But then, in July 2020, the ADL updated its definition to make it oddly narrow: Racism, it said, was the “marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

Such a definition, as critics and we here at Mediaite noted, excluded millions of victims of the Holocaust — the very sin that the ADL had accused Goldberg of committing.

The ADL did not respond to Mediaite’s request for comment on Tuesday. But by Wednesday, they had again changed their definition of racism to an “interim” one.

Now, the ADL definition reads: “Racism occurs when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity.”

There’s no need for “interim” here, the ADL’s new definition is entirely satisfactory.

Nonetheless, the ADL’s definition of systemic racism remains on its website, and remains flawed by its narrow scope:

A combination of systems, institutions and factors that advantage white people and for people of color, cause widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity. One person or even one group of people did not create systemic racism, rather it: (1) is grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy;* (2) exists in the institutions and policies that advantage white people and disadvantage people of color; and (3) takes places in interpersonal communication and behavior (e.g., slurs, bullying, offensive language) that maintains and supports systemic inequities and systemic racism.

* In the above definition, the term “white supremacy” refers to the systematic marginalization or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges people who identify as white. It does not refer to extremist ideologies which believe that white people are genetically or culturally superior to non-whites and/or that white people should live in a whites-only society.

By definition, White people are not the only group capable of systemic racism. Anyone, regardless of skin color, can institute a racist system.

The ADL, which was founded to combat anti-Semitism, upheld its mission in the Goldberg saga. Unfortunately, it has undermined the same mission in its own messaging on racism.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.