emptywheel

And you have been using racially charged language unthinkingly, and are too embarrassed to think it through now.

You're just making stuff up. The term is not 'racially charged language' - that's total nonsense.

It is a historic term that white AMericans used to dismiss Russian criticisms of US race relations. The term depended on white people not understanding that our persecution of blacks really was a political act, just like persecuting dissidents.

So, yes, by using it, you are adopting the viewpoint that lynching black people was not a political act.

No. You do realize there's a ton of language Americans use all the time w/o realizing the racist subtext out of which the language arises?

whataboutism is not an example of this

You're right. When Russians raised lynchings to dismiss US criticism and Americans blew that off bc lynchings were acceptable that wasn't racist at all.