I'm going to try to briefly attempt to both explain what this means, only in order to illustrate its impact in 2006. However, I have to add the preface that this is a highly complex and charged issue. My hope is to do it justice. I have to thank DP for providing a post that serves as inspiration. I'm not cross-posting it, so if you'd like some background, go read it. I need to add another preface, about DP's post being related to a blog fight related to race. This post isn't restricted to those participants in particular, although clearly, one of those bloggers along with the commenters on that site, doesn't know or understand what Racism is. Some of their sentiments are reflective of an increasingly popular current attitude toward racism in this country, so I'll address them indirectly as well.
Ok, too much fancy language, and cautions for me: Let's just jump into this.
racism - n. 
1.) The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2.) Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
the definition:: yes, it's above, but do those 27 words capture the myriad experiences that define what it means today?
Maybe visual imagery will help, so picture these:
Racism, circa 1972: a 6 yr old saga swings on her backyard swingset, in her pristinely white neighborhood. Her parents have mentioned racism, but she's too young to understand what it is. Tony (real name), a 6 yr old from across the street, asks to swing, then says he can't, because his parents say he can't play with n*ggers. saga runs to ask her daddy what n*gger means. Daddy & Tony's dad exchange heated unpleasantries, related to the use of the N-word, but this goes over saga's head. However, neither Tony, Tony's dad, or any other member of Tony's family speaks to saga or her family again. For 5 years. Until they move.
Racism, circa 1975: being 8 yrs old, in a predominantly black school (via a "project" close to my neighborhood), studying multiplication, and having your prinicipal's voice nervously & hurriedly urging you over the school's PA system, to gather your things and leave, and run home. However, before you make it off school property, several cars painted crudely with "White Power", pull up to the school, and the car's passengers and drivers chase the school children back to their projects, as you run home wondering what they/you did wrong. If you're wondering why this occurred, apparently some White parents weren't happy that the school was being integrated.
Racism, circa 1984: you attend a predominantly white college, majoring in Computer Science. Your advisor suggests switching to something less "challenging", particularly given your background and cultural upbringing. Note also, that your High School GPA was 3.81, your graduated in the top 10th percentile in your class from a technical high school ,where you majored in...Computer Science, and you scored 1210 on your SATs. You wonder if maybe it's because you're female, but then, so is the advisor.
Racism, circa 1992: career changes, and life changes later, you're a retail Assistant Manager at a well-known chain of specialty fashion stores. You've moved from part-time Associate to this position in a relatively short time, moving up the ranks to full-time, etc. - based on your high-sales volumes, ability to motivate other employees, and your skills in budgeting, cost-controls, etc. A new store is planned in your area, and you work diligently to get promoted to Store Manager for this store, hiring & training associates, creating sales projections and merchandising plans. You stock said store, along with the associates, only to find out that a part-time associate with no degree and no previous experience and an uneventful sales record is being promoted over you to become Store manager for this store.
Racism, circa 2006: you work for XXXXX Corporation, as a Systems Analyst. You hold two degrees in your field, and have XX years of experience in your field. You love your job, and it shows in your work. Your performance reviews are stellar, reflecting your attention to detail, and your rapport with your team. This puts you in line for a promotion. But when your boss leaves, and is replaced with someone unfamiliar with your past performance, this new boss elects to "groom" another, less qualified candidate for the next open slot. And asks you to report to him. This new boss, and his candidate have a lot in common, their shared cultural background and (implicitly) their values and subsequent work ethic. He suggests that this person will (eventually) be a better "fit". And that you should be a team player, and support this.
These are the rules, the contraints, in which people of varying colors, varying ethnicities, and varying races operate on a regular basis. Don't misunderstand the most important lesson here: these are NOT exceptions for black people and people of color in general (brown, red, yellow, etc). These are the rules. This still happens, every day. Every day. Every day, in both well-to-do neighborhoods, as well as economically oppressed neighborhoods, all across this country, black people are still readily, publicly referred to as "subhuman" and "inferior". Yes, this still happens. In 2006.
On a personal note: I've never wished I wasn't black, but there are days that I wake up in the mirror, dreading some cultural clash at work, or some ignorantly rude racial comment at school, or during a passing conversation at the grocery store. I sometimes anticipate getting followed around at Neiman Marcus or in the Versace boutique. And I never wish that I'm not black. However, I do wish that being black wasn't always so f*cking hard.
Stay with me y'all, this may be a long one...
my expectations:: may be a bit high at times, but I do expect that certain people understand that concept. Women, for example, on being ogled one-time-too-many by someone she doesn't wish to get ogled by, I expect to sympathize. The "educated" or "socially-aware", by definition being "knowledgeable", should understand the "anomalies" that crop up in the media (Amadou Diallo, or Yusuf Hawkins) are the tip of the proverbial iceberg. They should know that they're not just exceptions. They should know that popular media (by its nature, and definition) cannot report everything, and is targeted to their primary audience, the social majority.
Apparently they don't. So here's a clue. We're (black people) not "paranoid" or "screaming race". It happens. To real people. That we know.
another current story:: My friend, X was detained by the Sheriff's department in a rural Georgia county, one early morning not long ago. He sleepily left for work, hours before dawn, leaving his wallet at home, and proceeded to get lost. Then he ran out of gas. Pulling into a local filling station, he also realized he'd left his cell phone at home as well. He only had his pager. He asked the clerk to use the store's phone, and the now nervous clerk refused. He then offered the clerk a proposition: a temporary exchange: the $100 pager for 2 gallons of gas ($6), so he could return home and collect the wallet, phone, etc, then pay for the gas. The nervous clerk agreed, and while my friend pumped the gas, the clerk called the local Sheriff, who promptly placed my friend in the back of his cruiser. It was only after my friend began crying that the Sheriff entertained the whole story, and allowed my friend to make one phone call: to me. I brought his wallet, cell phone, pager and met him at the Sheriff's office. I followed the Sheriff, and my still handcuffed friend, back to the gas station, where the Sheriff first asked the clerk if he wanted to press charges. It's only because the clerk didn't want to go to court, that my friend didn't end up in jail. Evidence enough?
moving on...my rant:: I was nearly at the point of being speechless with anger about the aforementioned blog fight. I was mentally creating a post about blogging while black, code-switching (ebonics and/or the King's english, and why most black people have to do this) when my hackles went up.
This blog-fight reminded me of too many conversations I've had lately. Online and off. Defending my right to question people's use of the "race" card, while wondering how the pendulum has begun to subtly swing back to the 1970's. Because now, it's not just that black people are inferior based on genetics, or crime, or upbringing. No, now it seems that black people are inferior primarily because we can't just "get over it". Our mindsets are stuck on all things race-related, and if we'd just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and realize that, we'd achieve more. We'd become less militant, and more culturally acceptable. We'd become empowered, and overcome the four centuries of oppresion in this country, and be able to do, well, anything. As long as we stop "playing" the victim.
GTFOHWTBS. Are you f*cking serious?
reverse-racism:: is the kind of self-victimization (because all that ranting about how "sick they are" or black folks screaming "racism" is hardly passive) that's self-aggrandizing. It's being used as a subversive counterattack to real issues that plague our culture. And it's not a solution, or even a valid counterattack. It's a foamcore wall, a hedge, to culturally hide yourself from problems that still exist. It's a stance that essentially validates the racism that's inherently American.
We're all different, yes. We're supposed to "appreciate" those differences. One of those differences is our experience. Yet, by stating those differences no longer matter, we minimize their importance, and invalidate those experiences. And therefore, are racist.
My difference stares back at me, both in the mirror, and in the interactions with people of other races, so there's no f*cking way I can put it behind me.
I may have more later.
I'll be looking for more, later....