It’s complicated. Racism has dual meanings: 1) prejudice based on race, and 2) the systemic oppression and marginalization that racial prejudice has engendered in the dominant culture, regardless of whether any particular member of that culture personally subscribes to that prejudice. When you hear someone claim something like “African-Americans can’t be racist” they’re referring to the latter definition; obviously they’re capable of the former.
We should probably get different words for the different meanings.
