I came across an article in my FB feed the other day with this title: 7 reasons why reverse racism doesn’t exist. and I thought instantly there was going to be one of two things, a well thought out treatise on why there is no such thing as reverse racism or a slam dunk into the toilet bowl about how only the white man can be racist. Slam dunk into the toilet bowl for 7 points….
The author was right on one count…there is no such thing as reverse racism; there is only racism. Racism doesn’t care who is projecting hate against whom, there is no reverse there is only hate applied from one human being towards another human being on the basis of their race and their race alone. This is not to be confused with prejudice which is a preconceived notion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
Now for the seven points the idiot author covered.
1) Racism does not equal privilege and power, not in the slightest. The definition of racism does not include either trait.
Oxford def: belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
Mirriam Webster def: race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
dictionary.com: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
Racism is hating someone for the color of their skin, not because you have privilege and power, changing the definition to fit your preconceptions is just as intellectually dishonest as claiming that a word is too hurtful to be used in normal conversation (i.e. Redskin, queer, gay, illegal alien, etc). But hey, I’m not PC and I don’t see a need to ban every word that ever offended anyone for any reason. (notice I didn’t drop in the N-word. As a point I agree that it is as hateful and racist a word as ever and NO ONE should use it, for any reason. I don’t care if you drop the er and add an a to the end…the end result is using a word that denigrates to refer to friends…like calling your female friends bitches…civilized people don’t do that)
2) Anger is a legitimate response to oppression…if you’re being oppressed, which you are not. By the way, rioting and looting, burning down black and minority owned businesses in your local community and killing police officers sitting in their cars is not anger, it’s terrorism. Talking about the “angry black man/woman/child” etc., um yes they need to be nice when discussing racism and how they want to solve it. People don’t listen when you scream in their faces and use profanity…anger is not conducive to conflict resolution. That is why you compose yourself and make a rational, well thought out argument on your side to change the minds of others.
3)Using quotas to hire unqualified people for jobs or into academic institutions is racist. Simply saying we don’t have enough —– in the department is in and of itself racist. Are the people applying qualified individuals, if so hire them, I don’t care about their color…I want a fireman who can pick me up and get me out of the building in case I can’t get out on my own, I want a fit policeman who can chase down the person who robbed, beat, etc. another person. I don’t care about quotas and neither should you. Quality will find a way to the top.
4)Having spaces set aside for people of color is not racist, but then neither is a private club for whites, asians, latinos, etc only. I don’t care if you have a black student union, but don’t you dare bitch that you are under represented in the student union…have a black miss America, but don’t complain if a white, latino, or other wins the miss America competition. You can segregate yourselves into a group, but how does that help anyone?
5)Again no one is oppressed, but plenty of white people have experienced racism and oppression. Look up the Barbary slave trade, which actively traded white people like chattel from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th Century. Guess what, white people got over it and a lot of black people have gotten over slavery too considering no one in America has been a slave since 1865. If the defining trait of your history is that someone enslaved your ancestors way back when, you’re probably not doing anything to make your American experience anything other than about racism.
6)No shit, racism and prejudice are different. But don’t tell me that racism is the man keeping blacks down, while racially motivated violence against whites is merely prejudice (see Matthew Boorujuy, Allentown H.S. attacks, Matthew Robinson, etc) Prejudice is when I see someone with their hat on backwards and jeans below their boxers and I think, punk or gang member…my response it based on a preconceived notion without ever knowing the person, a stereotype not based on race. But there is a reason why such stereotypes exist. In high crime neighborhoods a person with their hoodie up might be looked upon as a suspect, but the same person walking through a different neighborhood in the cold dressed the same way, might not get looked at at all. That is why it is a prejudice, because you judge before you know.
7)Hard truths aren’t racist…if they’re truths. Racist cops did not rape and abuse Tawana Brawley, in fact no one raped or abused Tawana Brawley. Racism fabricated on a lie is not racism, it is merely rabble rousing and race baiting, thank you Al Sharpton. If I disagree with something a black person says, that does not make me a racist no matter if they claim I am or not.