I see your point.

Respectfully, race, racism, and mental health disorders already have well-defined meanings, so there is no need to redefine them. However, I would argue that the general public needs a better understanding of these terms and their historical and current impact on their lives and the people around them.

Moreover, my question isn’t about redefining these terms, rather fostering a meaningful dialogue through, for example, the following articles:

• Harmony over hate: Treating racism as a behavioral disorder
• Classifying Racism as a Behavioral Disorder: A Primer for All

...building on what we already know. What we do know is that a behavioral disorder is generally recognized as “a pattern of actions that consistently cause harm, distress, or impairment, disrupting an individual’s ability to function in social, academic, or professional settings” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

When we apply the APA’s definition of a behavioral disorder to racism, we see the same trajectory: racist thoughts turn into actions, racist actions become policies, and those policies evolve into tools of systemic oppression and enslavement, leading to institutionalized discrimination, violence, and death. Racism in America is a historically documented pattern of actions that consistently cause harm, distress, and impairment, disrupting an individual’s ability to function in social, academic, and professional settings, which fits the textbook definition of a behavioral disorder.

I’m sure you see where I’m going with this, but in case you don’t, there is already broad agreement on these definitions, including what constitutes a mental disorder. Racism is as clear as the sky is blue, and we saw that with the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 (BBC News, 2020). His death, under the knee of a police officer, was not just an individual act of violence, but the result of policies and institutional practices that have long enabled systemic racism in policing (BBC News, 2020). Prior to this, many in the U.S. refused to believe that racism was a pervasive issue, despite the overwhelming historical and contemporary evidence.

This is why treatment, change, and intervention are long overdue. Yet beyond the ideology of supremacy, one of the biggest obstacles we face is society’s complicit nature.

What I mean is that many people who have benefited from institutionalized racism in America since its inception do not see themselves as racist, even though policies exist to uphold it, and they are direct beneficiaries of those policies. That is society’s complicit nature. This is why addressing racism as a behavioral disorder is so important. My position is to call it what it is and develop programs that allow people to seek help on their own terms when they need it, using the existing mental health framework.

On a broader context, my perspective isn't about labeling people, calling people out, revenge or retribution neither is a means to force people to change the way they think. It's about demonstrating empathy, offering attornment with forgiveness and making amends on a personal, community and society level for both the oppressor and the oppressed.

At its core, my perspective sees the fight is not about color, race, and gender, nor any aspect of flesh and blood. Rather, it is about a corrupt mind that seek control and enrich themselves by creating confusion and division. The reprobated and perverse mindset in position of power is the real enemy, not the vessels we were born into.

References

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• BBC News. (2020, May 26). George Floyd: What happened in the final moments of his life? BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52861726
• Johnson, F. K. (2024). Harmony over hate: Treating racism as a behavioral disorder. Research Features, 151. https://doi.org/10.26904/RF-151-6036065994
• Johnson, Frederick, Classifying Racism as a Behavioral Disorder: A Primer for All (January 9, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4689156 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4689156

Eugenics is on the rise again: human geneticists must take a stand

Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01297-4