Racism is Not a Mental Illness

6 min read

Just now

How we respond to racial injustice

Every now and then, one argument we see certain segments of the left make is the idea of racism being a mental illness. I remember in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, countless people would post this kind of message on Twitter as a means of denouncing racism and attacking the right for clinging so strongly to their racist ideas. At the time, and still today, I really dislike this sort of argument, and I actually think it’s quite reactionary.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where people are coming from when they say that racism is a mental illness. They’re trying to denounce racism, obviously, but they’re also trying to draw attention to the apparent absurdity of racism. In calling something like this a mental illness, it’s basically a way of saying, “Look how absurd this idea is, it must be the product of some psychiatric ailment!” The only problem here is that this is a deeply flawed way of trying to understand social attitudes such as racism.

For one thing, it’s a complete misappropriation of what a mental illness is. When people talk about mental illnesses, they’re talking about problems people often experience with their sense of self. People are incredibly depressed and struggling to find a reason to even stay alive, and they end up getting diagnosed with depression. Or they have deep-seated…