We are told that:
(1) racism = prejudice + power
and that therefore those who don’t have power can’t be racist. The same people tend to argue that reality is socially constructed that knowledge is a product of power relations and that therefore:
(2) knowledge = power
Let’s combine the two and see what we get. Rearranging the first equation yields:
(1′) power = prejudice – racism
which incidentally implies that racism tends to reduce the power of those who are already endowed with prejudice. Substituting from (2) we get:
(1”) knowledge = prejudice – racism
which implies that people become more knowledgeable in the measure that they become more prejudiced with a given amount of racism. Point all this out to a social justice warrior, and it will tell you that logic is a tool for oppression ….