Also:
Prejudice, yes. Racist, no. Reverse racism does not exist.
White people in the U.S. (I say the U.S. because it is a place where they are the majority and the majority rules here) are in the position of power to where they can indeed oppress POCs. Racism and oppression goes hand in hand. Since POCs are the minority, and nor in that position of power (especially black and Native Americans, seeing as Native Americans were here first and the white men came and straight stole their land from them, and my ancestors were brought over here to be slaves to the white man), we can definitely voice our hatred and prejudice and disdain, but we simply cannot be racist.
These articles explain the message I would like to convey better than I can.
Huffington Post: Dear White People
Hope these help!!
The definition has been criticized by some academics for relying on the assumption that power is a zero-sum game, and for not accounting for the lack of uniformity in prejudicial attitudes. Critics have also noted that this definition is belied by the fact that except in absolutist regimes, minorities, however disadvantaged they may be, are not powerless, because power is organized into multiple levels.
It is extremely simplistic to say that White people have ALL the power, and POC have none, especially considering that the wealthiest ethnic groups in America are Indians and Jewish people. BOTH out-earning White people by extremely vast margins.
Does this mean that White people cannot commit racism against Indians and Jewish people? Because obviously, those ethnic groups have more wealth than they do.
Does this mean that when Indians tell their children not to talk to White people because they’ll get “corrupted by Western culture”, or call their children “American” as insults, by logic of this definition, are perpetuating racism against White people? Because it’s very clear that Indians as an ethnic group have more power over White people.
And herein lies the problem with the term “POC” in general, because you are taking hundreds, possibly thousands of cultures and ethnic groups, and treating them as a collective disingenuously against a nebulous “white people.” When in actuality, oppression is an extremely nuanced issue that cannot be put in binary “us vs them” terms. There are other factors like class and wealth which can in fact NEGATE the oppression that one would normally face for gender and/or ethnicity, and I never see most of these political activists take those into account.
A Black person’s experience and a Chinese person’s experience in America is going to be totally different. Hispanics have different issues, Native Americans have different issues. Lumping them into one not only creates a false picture but also is perpetuating a different type of racism – lumping all non-European cultures as inherently the same.
And even many of the people who claim to fight for racism are very happy to perpetuate it themselves using THIS VERY DEFINITION as an excuse.
See how people reacted when a Chinese immigrant spoke on her experience with a Black person telling her to “go back to her country.” Did these White people, in an attempt to protect the bad actions of a person just because he was Black, not perpetuate racism against a Chinese person by doing so? And does this mean the actions of this Black person were suddenly okay?
You also mention slavery, while also failing to realise that African countries were also perpetuating this trade, and that majority of slaves were actually transported within Africa and to Carrribean countries, and only a small percentage actually came to America. There were also Black people who owned slaves as well, and while some did so to protect family members, there was ALSO a subset who did not.
And when you look beyond America – the most common type of racism in existence is not White vs POC, but POC vs POC. Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The Hutus and Tutsis. India in general (which there actually is no such thing, India is 29 countries patched together and everyone with the exception being the government sees it as such), the Ainu vs Japanese, Han Chinese vs other Chinese, racism between ethnic groups in Southeast Asia, the list goes on. White vs POC racism is merely a drop in the vast ocean of racism existing in the world.
So can a White person experience racism? Can Black people be racist? When you look at the actual oppression that is going on everywhere and don’t limit yourself to America, and when you don’t see racism as a binary term, the answer to both these questions is a resounding YES.
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