Reverse Racism

Prejudice

Prejudice is an irrational feeling of dislike for a person or group of persons, usually based on stereotype.^{[citation needed]}

Racists say:

The feeling of dislike and fear can be perfectly rational. Based on personal experience with black crime in schools and neighborhoods, reinforced by academic studies about race differences (IQ), and government statistics about race differences (crime). All hinges on the beloved but soundly disproven Equality Dogma.

Virtually everyone feels some sort of prejudice, whether it's for an ethnic group, or for a religious group, or for a type of person like blondes or fat people or tall people. The important thing is they just don't like them -- in short, prejudice is a feeling, a belief. You can be prejudiced, but still be a fair person if you're careful not to act on your irrational dislike."Reverse Racism"

Discrimination

Discrimination takes place the moment a person acts on prejudice. This describes those moments when one individual decides not to give another individual a job because of, say, their race or their religious orientation. Or even because of their looks (there's a lot of hiring discrimination against "unattractive" women, for example). You can discriminate, individually, against any person or group, if you're in a position of power over the person you want to discriminate against. White people can discriminate against black people, and black people can discriminate against white people if, for example, one is the interviewer and the other is the person being interviewed.

Racism

Racism describes patterns of discrimination that are institutionalized as "normal" throughout an entire culture. It's based on an ideological belief that one "race" is somehow better than another "race". It's not one person discriminating at this point, but a whole population operating in a social structure that actually makes it difficult for a person not to discriminate.

A clear cut example is a slave-holding culture: people are born into a society where one sort of person is "naturally" a master, and another sort of person is "naturally" a slave (and sometimes not considered a person at all, but a beast of burden). In a culture like that, discrimination is built into the social, economic and political fabric, and individuals -- even "free" individuals -- don't really have a choice about whether they discriminate or not because even if they don't believe in slavery, they interact every day with slaves and the laws and rules that keep slaves bound. "Reverse Racism"

If you look at important voting bodies like the Federal and the State senates and congresses, or at the Federal and State supreme courts, or at the CEO list of major corporations, or at any other body that wields substantial power in the U.S., you will count only a few black faces (and in some cases, none).

Racists say:

This is due to Race difference (IQ). IQ is the most important predictor or professional success. Race differences in Self Control, capacity to defer gratification, discipline also contribute to that difference in professional success. Due to Jewish Intelligence over 30% of non-peace Nobel Prizes have been bestowed upon Jews, who are only 0.2% of the world's population (citation needed). Say Racists.

Out of the number of black faces you count, most of them will not be representing the views of the majority of black people in this country, but the views of the white majority.

Racists say:

These Blacks are acting White. White attitudes of discipline, studiousness, lead to more professional success. They probably have IQ similar to the Whites in similar positions. Or a bit less, if they got their position by affirmative action quotas. Successful Blacks usually are Mulattoes.

On the other hand, if you count the number of black people in poverty, and in prisons, or the number of people who are unemployed or lack health care, there are far more black people in these categories than is proportionate to their numbers in the larger society.

Racists say:

It is uncontested that Blacks commit more crime and have lower education. Due to scientifically proven race differences (IQ) and race differences (crime), there are proportionally large numbers of Blacks in the low IQ and high crime populations. high criminality

Unless you are going to argue that blacks are "naturally" inferior to whites (which is an outright racist position),

Racists say:

Blacks have lower IQ, and higher criminality. That is as "inferior" as white "inferiority" in the Olympic 100 meter race.

You have to admit that there is some mechanism that is limiting black opportunity.

Racists say:

Low IQ and low self control are some of these mechanisms.

That's the mechanism we call "racism" -- the interacting social, political, and economic rule systems that all discriminate, either overtly (racial profiling, for example) or covertly (i.e., white majority governments redrawing district voting lines so that black majority areas are politically split up and don't have the electoral power to vote in black candidates;

Racists say:

Blacks voting for Blacks because of the color of their skin in Black racism. But as is explained here, Blacks can not be racist.

or, white-run banks using zip codes as a criteria for excluding people who apply for loans. These are scientifically developed criteria to discern who can pay back the loan. The world wide pc:subprime mortgage crisis was actually caused by the non-performing loans that Banks had to give to minorities that did not qualify for loans, and just "happening" to exclude all the majority black neighborhoods in a city, a practice called "red-lining"). One could go on for hours about these various mechanisms, and I'm sure you can think of plenty on your own which discriminate against blacks, Hispanics, "Arab-looking" people, Native Americans, and so on.

Reverse Racism

Why there's no such thing as "Reverse Racism"

To Reverse Racism it's crucial to maintain the distinction between the above three terms, because otherwise white people tend to redefine "Discrimination" as "Racism". Their main argument is that because both blacks and white can discriminate against each other, that "Reverse Racism" is possible. But the truth of the matter is that black people: 1) have far less opportunity to discriminate against whites than whites have to discriminate against blacks, overall; and 2) black people lack a system of institutionalized support that protect them when they discriminate against whites. [...]

Reverse Racism would only describe a society in which all the rules and roles were turned upside down. That has not happened in the U.S., however much white right wing ideologues want to complain that they're being victimized by the few points of equality that minorities and women have managed to claim. White people who complain about "Reverse Racism" are actually complaining about being denied their privileges, rather than being denied their rights. They feel entitled to be hired and not to be discriminated against, even though the norm is white people discriminating against blacks. If, in a rare instance, a black employer discriminates against a white job applicant, that's not "reverse" anything -- it's simple discrimination. It's to be condemned on principle, but it's not evidence of some systematic program by which whites are being deprived of their rights.

The right wing popularized the term "Reverse Racism" because they were really angry at having their white privileges challenged. Anyone who uses that phrase, whether they are right wing or not, furthers the right wing's cause. This is what I tell Democrats and progressives who I hear using the term -- not only are they being inaccurate, but they're helping out their opponents.

The above arguments can be applied to any institutionalized structure of oppression, affecting any race, ethnic or religious group, and can be used to to oppose claims of "Reverse Sexism" too.