Reverse Racism

As I surf the interwebs and read discussions about race, I often hear right-leaning commenters alleging that this or that African-American is guilty of “reverse racism.”

As is illustrated by the accompanying photo, many people respond that it’s simply not possible.  According to modern race theory (or critical race theory, if you will), blacks cannot be racist.

How is that, you ask?  The academics have redefined racism. Webster’s definition is outdated: “belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”

According to modern ‘theorists,’ racism is defined as the combination of institutional power and prejudice.

Taking the theory a step further, they offer this. All people are inherently prejudiced against those who are different from them. In other words, all whites are prejudiced against blacks, and vice versa. All latinos are prejudiced against Native Americans, and vice versa. Etc.

According to the theory, only one group of people has any institutional power in the United States: white people.

Therefore since all white people are prejudiced, and white people have institutional power, all white people are racist.

Since African Americans, though, do not have institutional power, even though they might be prejudiced, they cannot be racist. (The same goes for all other races lacking institutional power, i.e., all races but white people.)

And voila. All whites are racist. Blacks and other races cannot be racist. Voila. “Reverse racism” does not exist.

Gregg Smith
Gregg Smith
Gregg Smith is a Great Falls attorney and businessperson. He writes a monthly column for the Great Falls Tribune.

5 COMMENTS

  1. We have reached the point at which certain pundits and commentators, wanting to protect their carefully-constructed reality, not only won’t characterize the kidnaping and torture incident as racist, but go on to openly question whether it can even be considered a hate crime.

  2. Thank you Greg. This is an interesting topic, because I personally think of people as people: no matter their color or gender. All people do things, whether good or bad. It doesn’t matter if they are purple, some are decent and some are not.

  3. All I see is people saying black people CAN’T do something because of their skin color being black. The mere pigment in a persons skin renders their ability to DO something impossible? I think people of all colors can do ANYTHING including be racists.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

ARCHIVES