I think there are two really illuminating things you mentioned in reply to this post. The first is your overall point of terminology, particularly in your treatment of the words "racism" and "racial prejudice". I'm going to throw out another one: institutionalized racism, which in my opinion, is really a subset-but an extremely relevant one- of racism. I would argue that my understanding of racism goes beyond just one group's belief that they are superior to another, and encompasses when that belief is perpetuated and legitimized by their society as a whole. I would argue that is another difference between racial prejudice and racism. Everybody- regardless of their skin color- has some racial/ethnic prejudices of their own and in my opinion it would be simplistic to say otherwise. But I personally belief racism goes beyond that--> it occurs when such beliefs are legitimized through various power structures such as big business, government law enforcement, the media etc. I would argue that this is the major problem today; our society still creates and upholds an environment where one's quality of life and opportunities are dictated by the color of their skin, or their gender or the sexual orientation. Of course it may not be in as obvious ways (though it is still important and scary to note just how recent the era of Jim Crowe segregation was), but if you are looking for proof, turn on the TV and count how many times you see characters of color in commercials or television shows (and I'm not just talking black characters; in my opinion I would argue that Asians, Indians, Hispanics are even LESS often represented), whole segments of the United States population are ignored, essentially implying that they do not carry the same importance as their counterparts. Another great example is the one you yourself brought up in your second example of prejudices. While I am extremely hesitant of absolving individuals for their actions, it is an obvious fact that those same young black men who commit a higher amount of violent crime are products of a society that engages in racial profiling, provides them with lower educational opportunities, is more likely to deny them a job than their white counterparts etc. In many ways our society has created an environment where the decks are staked against these young men, yet we then condemn them for their actions, without examining our own influence/impact in it. To be 100% honest, I don't really think the terminology is super important... as long as we understand that racial equality is still far off (though we have made amazing strides!), and work in whatever way we can, (even if is only through engaging in this discussion) to combat it, that is what matters.
Fair point about institutional racism. But even institutional racism, as it is no longer codified in law, is merely a product of our collective prejudices. For example, there was a study that showed that identical resumes--one having a black sounding name and one white sounding--were far more likely to garner a callback for the "white" applicant (in quotes, because there were no actual applicants). I doubt that those managers said to themselves "I don't want a black guy working for me". My guess is that it was subconscious. There is further evidence to support this, as other studies have shown that we (I mean everyone, not just whites) subconsciously associate things that are white (culturally white, not white color) with positivity and things that are black with negativity. As JacobVirgil said in his response, we need to be aware of our prejudices before we can confront them. I strongly disagree that words don't matter. There is a reason oliticians have dedicated speech writers, and advertisers employ trained copy writers. Words, even their etymology, influence our thinking on everything. Language defines the way we interact with one another so often (for instance right now, where we don't have the luxury of inflection or body language). Being precise and conceptually accurate are paramount to understanding, IMO.
I would definitely agree with what you said above. Ironically (showing how much words DO matter), I don't think I expressed myself as clearly as I should have in my last paragraph. I simply meant while the terminology is important, the act of recognizing that these problems still exist in society may be more important than the words we use to express these problems, particularly because many people have slightly different ways that they conceive of and understand these words. That being said, I do think my treatment of that was rather simplistic, and that you brought up a valid and obvious counterargument to my last point.