ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the US Supreme Court’s use of the words “racism”, “racist” and “white supremacy”. It treats the words as cultural keywords, which are words that are socially prominent but change meaning over time. The chapter’s thesis is that the Supreme Court exerts powerful influence over the cultural meaning of these keywords. The chapter explores several patterns in the Supreme Court’s use of the keywords. First, the Supreme Court never once uses the words in a majority opinion to acknowledge the racism of a prior Supreme Court decision, even when overturning a plainly racist decision. Second, the use of the words in separate decisions to criticise the Court is infrequent and has decreased in frequency. Third, the use of the words to deny or minimise the harms of racism has increased in frequency. Thus, the language of the Court has contributed to the distortion of the definitions of racism and white supremacy. This distortion makes it more difficult for advocates to pursue racial justice, particularly through the federal courts.
