I used to regularly debate someone I deeply respected who was fond of pointing out that the first person to argue semantics loses the debate.

Any "-ism", regardless of whether it's racism, sizeism, antiintellectualism, whatever, is a pathos appeal to prejudice and stereotype masquerading as a logos appeal to fact. I can dislike Ilhin Omar because she's a woman, because she's a Muslim, because she's a Midwesterner, because she's a Congresswoman or because I don't like her ideas. I can dislike her for any reason I choose. But if I dislike her because she's Somali while pretending to dislike her because of her ideas, I'm a racist. I am demonstrating prejudice. This does not require three definitions to establish. It is immune to syntax.

Trump does not appeal to his base to evaluate and reject the ideas of his opponents. He invokes tribal shorthand and prejudicial stereotypes to align their visceral dislike of the other. If they had no visceral dislike of the other they would be immune to these arguments. This does not require appealing to some halcyon era where "racism" was better defined; it's a self-contained syllogism.

The definition of "racism" hasn't changed - what's changed is the excusable level of racism. When all these Thailand-missionary grandkids-in-Singapore MAGA boosters were kids, being nice to the darkies was considered progressive. If you merely mocked transsexuals, rather than beating them, you were a liberal. And if that's your anchor, of course you're not a racist if you tolerate your mixed-race grandchildren. The spectrum starts at Hitler and stops at Charlottesville. I get it, man. It took me a while to figure out this whole "metoo" thing was upsetting to me because I don't get bonus points for not raping women anymore. My attitude on sexual harassment is utterly unchanged - but the accolades I got for not flashing my penis at women to remind them of their place in the hierarchy have fuckin' vanished, man. I have ceased to be a "nice guy" and am now just a "guy" and that is absolutely a demotion.

Used to be you got bonus points for being nice to dogs and Mexicans. Now? Now you have to listen to what Mexicans say as if they're people. And if your instinct is to discount what someone has to say because they're of a different ethnic makeup than you, you're a racist. Used to be that was okay. Now it's not. And that's why there's a bunch of angry-ass white people wanting the world to know that it's the world that changed, not them, dammit.