No, Karen, There is No Such Thing as “Reverse Racism”
And no this isn’t racist.
So in the last two weeks, we have all been having conversations about race. For some white people, it’s been very uncomfortable. When Black people and people of colour have called them out on their whiteness and the privileges that come with it, they have felt defensive and I saw a lot of people claiming that they are now experiencing “reverse racism”.
First of all, there is no such thing as “reverse racism”. It simply doesn’t exist. Marie Beecham explains why this is essentially impossible.
Racism requires both prejudice and power. You may face prejudice. That’s not racism, because your race is in power. The criminal justice system favours white people, social institutions favour white people and white culture, and internalised prejudices attribute favourable traits to white people. White people are irrefutably in the place of power, so reverse racism cannot exist
So do you see why there’s no way a Black person or a person of colour could be racist to a white person? Simply because they are not in power. So whilst you may be experiencing prejudice right now, there’s no way you can call it racism because white people are still the ones in power. It is still the dominant race in America. The system is literally set to benefit you.
