In an act of racial hatred, a white supremacist shot 9 blacks in a church in South Carolina. He reportedly said he wanted to "start a race war."

It is certain that this was racist murder. Does that mean it is "terrorism"? Here is an argument that it is.

I am not sure. If terrorism means anything, it is violence against innocents meant to intimidate people so as to serve a political cause. We don't know whether these murders fit that.

We don't need to squeeze them into the word "terrorism" to say they were a heinous crime.

Another article argues that systematic repression of American blacks is "terrorism".

Systematic repression of blacks exists, and is very bad, and maybe in some cases it has been terrorism, but the two are not the same.

The word "terrorist" has ceased in practice to mean anything other than a smear.