I think we're having an argument about semantics. I think it's a mistake to conflate racism with prejudice. I believe it diminishes the concepts of racism and sexism to invoke them in a non-systemic context.
When you change the meaning of racism to actually mean only institutional racism, the behavior that the old meaning represented suddenly becomes much more acceptable. In my opinion this shows a lack of moral clarity on the part of the people who do this, either willingly or not, since it shows that the reason they were opposed to racism was only because of the social prohibition to whatever was thought to be racist, not to the act of racial prejudice itself.
Excellent point. Racism and sexism are big ideas that operate on more than one level. Thanks for the reminder that I was thinking about it a narrow way.
When you are basing your prejudice on the color of one's skin it's racism. As it relates to hiring, it's unconstitutional and illegal in the US. People say "cultural fit" when it means they are discriminating based on age, sex, race, religion, personal beliefs or behavior that have nothing to do with being qualified to perform the work, which is what equal opportunity laws were established to prevent.
When a term is as legally and morally loaded as "racism", whether something is or isn't racism is no longer just semantics.