Fiona Flora --

As someone who very strongly relates to / agrees with so many of Frostjax's philosophies on race relations, it sounds to me as though one of the dynamics you're describing is implicit bias? (insofar as how "whiteness" is too often centered as the default in our society, and, consequently, how all people are expected to adhere to those unjustified norms).

I think that's a different (but interrelated and still-important) conversation. That is, the topic of how whiteness ends up "othering" those who don't adhere to its structures...yet, how people of all races have been conditioned to buy into it.

On the other hand, academic exercises such as Robin DiAngelo's workshops on "How to Be Less White" are harmful, because they go MEGA-OVERBOARD...well beyond the otherwise-reasonable work of teaching about systemic disparities and racist microaggressions.

At the apex of these conundrums is the bleak reality of how everyone seems to have a slightly different definition for racism...and, when one doesn't subscribe to a specific definition of racism that's generally peddled by academia, you get branded as "racist" by default (because, apparently, blindly subscribing to that particular definition is a prerequisite for being antiracist).

The narrow definition of racism (monodirectional behavior due exclusively to power+privilege) is self-defeating. It's preventing us from educating one another about race relations and cultural differences. It's creating even more problems than the preexisting ones it would claim to seek to solve.

Regarding the noun-vs.-adjective conundrum: I tend to shy away from using "racist" as a noun. I prefer to use it predominantly as an adjective, in order to focus on the behaviors. There's already a much better term for those individuals and cultural communities who want more/continued racial genocide: white supremacists.