Reverse Racism as Misnomer

I've heard people speak about the idea that reverse racism doesn't exist or would take a time machine to actually execute (see Reverse Racism by The MSSW for that gem!).

However, I'd like to take a moment to step back to a larger issue that I see with the term 'reverse racism'. It's a definite misnomer. As far as I can tell, it cannot exist because you can't have a reverse of something that doesn't have a specific place / person of origin. No definition of racism that I've seen includes a specific race or other group of people.

Here are three different definitions of 'racism' by 3 commonly used and / or well-trusted sources.

Merriam-Webster

"poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race"

and / or

"the belief that some races of people are better than others"

 

Wikipedia.org (as of January 21st, 2014)

 

"actions, practices or beliefs, or social or political systems that are based in views that see the human species to be divided into races with shared traits, abilities, or qualities, such as personality, intellect, morality, or other cultural behavioral characteristics, and especially the belief that races can be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to others, or that members of different races should be treated differently.^[1][2]"

 

 

National Association of Social Workers (via Barndt and Garcia & Van Soest) in their 2007 document Institutional Racism and the Social Work Profession: A Call to Action:

 

"Racism is the practice of discrimination and prejudice based on racial classification supported by the power to enforce that prejudice (Barndt, 1991; Garcia & Van Soest, 2006)"

 

 

 

 

 

In none of these definitions is any specific race noted.

 

If I, as a Black female, tell the White vacuum salesman on my porch that he has to stay outside while his Black partner comes in and shows me their newest Hoover model, I am being racist--by all three of the definitions listed above--if my only motivation for excluding the White salesman is because of his race (versus not letting him in because he was carrying a large weapon, was covered in soot, had a raging case of B.O., and so on).

 

If I grew up as a Mexican and considered flour tortillas to be a staple for every meal, if a Chinese store owner chooses to stop carrying the flour tortillas that my family and I enjoy, simply because she doesn't like Mexican people and doesn't want them in her store, that is racist. A decision was made to not provide a particular product based solely on the race of the potential buyer (versus not stocking tortillas because only one family would be buying them or because they were too expensive to purchase, stock, and sell at a reasonable price).

 

If you walk into a room full of people you don't know at a conference, large meeting, or classroom, and you refuse to sit in an open seat next to a White person, but pull up a chair to squeeze in next to Black person, only because you don't want to sit with a White person because of their race, that's racist (versus not sitting with that person because you know and dislike them on a personal level or you knew that the seat next to them was reserved for the meeting's leader).

 

I want to be clear that I'm talking about racism in a more non-judgmental way. I'm not professing that it's good or bad, I'm just trying to clarify what exactly it is so that we can further examine what it is not. I think a lot of people confuse the definition of 'racism' with the fact that they don't think they like racism or that they are racist themselves. The point is, if you have ever in your life made a decision and / or taken an action based solely on someone else's (or your own) race, you have behaved in a racist manner. This goes for White CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. This goes for homeless, unemployed, Latinos. This definition stands if you are someone who was offered a job at a particular place of business because you and the owner share a racial background (racist hiring), or if you got into a certain college in order for them to meet a demographic quota regarding your race (racist admittance).  

 

 

 

The phrase I think people may be thinking of when they use the word 'racism' in "reverse racism" is "institutional racism" or even "structural racism". This is the sort of racism that, as the names imply, are deep-seated and overarching throughout an entire culture. This sort of racism is entrenched in the foundation of how businesses are run, laws are written, cities are developed, neighborhoods are policed, education is offered, and justice is served.

 

Yet, even the idea of institutional or structural racism being reversed still doesn't make much sense to me. No matter who dishes out the institutional racism, it's either there or it isn't. It doesn't move forwards and backwards, it merely exists.

 

What does reverse sexism look like? Does that include when a man isn't allowed to attend a women-only domestic violence group or to lead a Girl Scout troop?

 

What is reverse ethnocentrism? Is there reverse prejudice in the world? How many reverse heterosexists do you know?

 

Unless the definition of a term includes that it can only be performed by a specific person or group (i.e.," White people's poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race") I don't see how a 'reverse' of that term can exist.

 

However, I'm open to learning. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook page. Thanks for reading!