Questions

Simply stated, in America reverse racism is not real and it does not matter that Wikipedia says it exists. Why is this? Racism involves a mixture of power and privilege. So let’s break it down. You may have heard that race is a social construct. What does this mean? It means that, race is not an innate characteristic to humans. Much like money, it’s made up, but over time, it has developed meaning. Yes, we all have different skin pigmentations; however, there is no gene for race. The concept of race became salient to try and justify colonial dominance over individuals based off of physical appearance and constructed differences.

To fully understand that reverse racism is not real, you have to look at the history of race in a America in Black and White terms. After two hundred fifty years of being enslaved, 1863 presented the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all enslaved people must be freed. Though formerly enslaved individuals were promised 40 acres and a mule to help them start new independent lives, many were given nothing and some even had their land stolen from them. Post antebellum America gave way to ninety years of Jim Crow, sixty years of separate but equal, and thirty-five years of racist housing policy affecting Black Americans (Coates).  The result of such a history means that many Black people were not able to accumulate real power or priviledge. In a capitalist society, this mainly translates to wealth. This happened even as policies such as the New Deal were passed. The New Deal is often credited with building the American middle class. Due to racist policies, this middle class was exclusive to White Americans. Even today, Black Americans are targets of predatory home loans and other practices.

The compounding of historical and present-day discriminatory practices/thoughts/ideologies means that Black Americans collectively do not have that mixture of power and priviledge written about above. In fact, “black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families… [W]hite households are worth roughly 20 times as much as black households… [and] only 15 percent of whites have zero or negative wealth, [while] more than a third of blacks do” (Coates). This is not because of the individual actions of Black Americans; rather, the aggregation of racist policies and racist actions of individual actors made this so. This translates to a collective lack of political, economic, and social power among Black Americans. Meanwhile, White Americans have continued to be politically, economically, and socially mobile because they have traditionally been those wielding power in American society. This is due to white hegemony.

White Hegemony:

1. The social, political economic, and cultural are controlled by a white power elite

2. “Whiteness” is normalized as the standard to which all groups are expected to conform

3. White people have preferential access to the good things in life because of their race

Racism occurs when it is coupled with the power to suppress the political, economic, or social progression of an individual who is part of a historically marginalized group. 

But maybe you’re still confused about reverse racism not being real. What about the times when you or a White friend has felt targeted or has been targeted because of their race? These instances do not amount to reverse racism. These may be instances of prejudice or discrimination--again, not reverse racism.

Prejudice: a preconceived negative opinion about a group of people that is not based on reason or actual experience

Discrimination: treating someone differently based off of a preconceived opinion about the group they have been categorized into