Stop trying to make reverse racism happen
Kara Jobmann | Staff Writer
Reverse racism is not a thing. It is an insult to say black people can be racist towards white people, when the founding concept of racism is “other” marginalized groups further suppressing them. While there is an ability to hate among all people, there is a vast difference between hating someone and using the institution itself to oppress minorities. The concepts of racism and racial nomenclature were both created years ago as a means to typify people of color. Therefore, reverse racism is a logical fallacy that needs to be done away with.
It is said President Donald Trump won the “silent majority,” originally coined by former President Richard Nixon when calling for Vietnam War support. Again, this sounds like an oxymoron when you break it down.
How can you, as a majority, be disenfranchised? Especially when your community has people working towards further oppressing people of color or people with different religious beliefs than you. When people say “silent majority,” you assume others have actively fought against this majority. Silent means “unheard,” while majority is self-explanatory. A majority has more notoriety, a higher chance of getting jobs and lesser chance at being incarcerated, arrested or murdered. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, if black people were incarcerated at the rate which white people were, prison populations would decrease by 50 percent.
While we cannot neglect the many working class people who have lost jobs throughout the Rust Belt, and have been neglected in the way of drug and alcohol abuse, to say these people fought against it is an absurd, narrow view on what goes on in this country. These people do need help, and the liberal party failed to address the poverty raging this area of America last year.
Drug abuse is an issue, poverty is an issue and not being able to make ends meet is an issue many certainly face. However, they aren’t working in a system that has placed them as “less than” since the 1500s or earlier. These people are not working against a system placing people of color as inherently “lesser than.” When people argue that white people are fought against, they undermine thousands of oppressive years people of color have dealt with and continue fighting against.
My issue with the reverse racism argument is seen in the immense support of the law enforcement movement “Back The Blue,” which also antagonizes Black Lives Matter – showing America’s double standards and inherent racism. The police profession should be supported, and many officers aren’t worthy of the bad reputation of others. But why can they distinguish the good and bad of the police force, but not support black men shot in the streets because there are a select few choosing to loot stores?
When white people speak out against Starbucks cups printed with snowmen and “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” we see, firsthand, the kind of privilege they are accustomed to and how they do not like losing. Allowing other religions to feel included does not automatically mean you are going to lose your right to practice Christianity. This country was founded on the idea of religious freedom. But when Muslims try to flee war zones, we block them at the border, hold them in airports and rip off their hijabs.
The fact of the matter is that there is enough freedom to go around. Allowing people of color and other disenfranchised groups to rise above where we once held them does not threaten our ability to worship the god we choose or read the religious text we prefer. Nor does it limit my ability to get a job or work hard.
White people’s anger at minority groups for trying to improve their communities’ socioeconomic standing is like holding someone’s head under water, letting them up and shoving them down again, only to ask why they can’t breathe. We’re not in the place to tell people of color to improve – and then express ire whenever they attempt to do just that.
Featured Image: “Alt-right” leader Richard Spencer stood at the Republican National Convention in July 2016 to promote his ideologies. Michelle Goldberg.
We’re the “silent majority” precisely because the last presidential administration DID NOT LISTEN to our concerns about national security and protecting the U.S. from radical Islamic terrorism, not wanting Obamacare forced down our throats, not wanting Supreme Court justices to act as activists toward certain interest groups instead of strictly interpreting the Constitution and presidential power as written, not giving Christians freedom to act against what’s socially popular because that goes against their religion, and I can go on and on. It’s precisely because of ignorance from you and others that I didn’t publicly say these things before Donald Trump was elected. Your response is probably to call me homophobic, Islamaphobic, sexist, racist, etc. You liberals use the same checklist of insults over and over because you have no compelling arguments against what the “silent majority” believes. NO MORE. I am speaking up and against your ignorance. There IS reverse racism in this country and also huge double standards toward what’s acceptable behavior from African Americans and what’s acceptable behavior from others. The “silent majority” is fed up with it, and that’s why the far left keeps losing.
A racist always begins a topic with, “I’m not a racist.” You did not fail to do so. As a matter of fact, you went to great lengths to tell the reader how impossible it is for your racism to be racism. The entire thing was hard to read due to your flawed logic on what racism actually is.
Just had to say thank you for not bothering with the whole “reverse” racism thing. Of all the maybe 2,368 thing the left has declared “nothing but a social construct” this past year, the term reverse racism would be the only one that could actually fit that bill.
You’re very young, so that’s probably where your naïve thinking comes from, although I thought that a university would teach you critical thinking. Anyone of any race or ethnicity can exhibit racism toward someone of a different race or ethnicity. Being a minority among a certain population group has nothing to do with personal behavior. Certain African Americans have called whites horrible, derogatory names, and their behavior should not be excused.
For you, you all need the learn the definition of racism. Racism is a system that includes bigotry, prejudice, discrimination and antagonism. Being called a derogatory name is not racism, although it does show ignorance. Being treated differently and denied a chance at an opportunity based solely on your race is racism. There is NOT ONE situation or opportunity in which blacks have had the chance to deny any whites a chance or opportunity within life. But there are plenty of situations in which laws, policies, and procedures have been set into motion to deny blacks, Latinos, Chinese, and other minorities within the U.S. an opportunity. Kind of hard to be racist to white people when we are engulfed in Eurocentric images (white hat cowboy = good guy, white/light skin is pretty, black/dark skin is ugly or unwanted, white characters are heroes, smart, ingenious while black characters are either slaves, the help, stupid, silly, or criminals). Within the last decade have blacks been combating this narrative and the “us too” comes into play. Blacks can be discriminatory and prejudice, but we do not have the power, money, or clout to stop not one white person from succeeding in life. Reverse racism does not exist.