Racism is

[BainsBane]

Many things, but one of its most insidious manifestations is when white people claim victimhood because of the color of their skin.

My ancestors were not subject to slavery; they have not been subjected to lynching, Jim Crow, and systematic voter disenfranchisement. Therefore my race, the white race, is not a victim of racism. Someone says something you don't like about white people, you may take offense. You may have every right to be angry, but you are not the victim of racism. Your whiteness, my whiteness, makes us privileged. I bear that racial privilege despite growing up on welfare. While disadvantaged economically, I benefited from white privilege. Having white skin does not make us victims. To pretend it does is in fact a manifestation of racism, one that trivializes the profound inequality that has structured this nation since its foundation and continues to result in the second-class citizenship, even death. When a white person pretends that their discomfort is in any way comparable to that, they trivialize racism, its violence and power.

The notion of racism against whites emerged in reaction to the Civil Rights movement and Affirmative Action. It has its origins in extremist, White Power groups that promoted that ideology, which then filtered into the right-wing media and now has gone mainstream among "progressives," whose use of that concept has sullied the word "progressive." It is part of a backlash against growing racial inclusion and the ascendancy of African Americans to positions like the presidency. Such rhetoric denies history, denies socio-cultural reality, and works to maintain the racist system of inequality it pretends to be a victim of.

[bravenak]

1. Some like to pile on african american and harass them and bully them and then play the victim

when that black person gets angry and decides to be done with their crap. Many seem to think they can treat us any way they want and we should accept it as our due. I have noticed how some will harass the same person one by one, each taking a turn insulting them and then calling them stupid for getting angry with all of the insults and the charges of REVERSE RACISM. It almost seems that some consider black people to be the real racists if they speak out about racism at all.

[BainsBane]

2. Yes, I've noticed that

[Skidmore]

5. Dressing up bigotry in the language

of left really is more hurtful, I think. It is at once hurtful and ignorant because it undermines the very values they claim to hold.

[bravenak]

7. It is way worse than from the right.

And they way they come one by one to insult and degrade is breathtaking. Like they feel like they are owed something.

[Skidmore]

3. Well said. Any person who embraces the language of white victimhood

is neither liberal or progressive and put on display for the world their inability to "get it." It is sad to see DU become site where this sort of bigotry has found a home.

[sufrommich]

4. I agree with this OP.Sometimes the obvious has to spelled

out in no uncertain terms. k& big rec!

[mcar]

6. So well said BB

And isn't it a shame that it needs saying?

[Prism]

8. Racism is racism

Bigotry, abuse, discrimination, or assault based on race.

Collectively, there is no such thing as racism against white people.

Collectively, there is widespread racism against ethnic communities in America.

Individually, there can be racism committed between one individual and another.

A white person may be the victim of racism if the abuse they are suffering is directed towards them based solely on their racial heritage.

This NewSpeak definition of racism is always trotted out when someone individually commits racism, but they want to be excused from their behavior based on collective experiences.

It does not diminish racism to use this NewSpeak. It calcifies it and generates new resentments. When, for example, we have black students in Dartmouth abusing and assaulting white students while screaming racial invective, to then turn around and defend that with, "Well, they're not being racist!" how many white people witnessing that do you think are being taught anything? How many white people, do you suppose, are slapping their foreheads and going, "Of course! It can't possibly be racism at all. Thank you for educating me!"

Let me help you - Zero to none.

We have terms that already adequately describe the collective racial problem in America - white privilege and institutional racism.

By claiming only white people can be racist, you are not only not striving for unity, you are actively inserting a crobar into the situation to keep people separated and resentful.

Your NewSpeak definition sucks and is unhelpful.

But, to be honest, I'm not sure being helpful is really the point of any of this. Not. At. All.

[BainsBane]

11. The newspeak is casting whites as victims of racism

Racism emerged as an ideology to justify slavery. There is nothing new about discussing racism in terms of subjugation and oppression.
What is new is the right-wing argument claiming whites are victim of racism. As I said, it emerged from White Power hate groups and has gone mainstream.

It is the equivalent of saying I as a straight person am oppressed by having to see gay people around me. It is the same as equating homophobia, which is systemic discrimination that results even in murder, with a straight person's discomfort. It is like saying the bakers who have to make cakes for gay people are as discriminated against as the gay men and women killed in hate crimes.

As for your help, I don't need it. I have an academic background in this subject. I also am not so obtuse to claim that pointing about that white victimhood is a fiction is "driving a wedge," when the function of the discourse of white victimhood is to maintain the permanent subjugation of people of color.

[bravenak]

12. Exactlu. Thank you.

[Starry Messenger]

18. Boom.

[Prism]

28. Word salad avoiding the salient discussion

You are backing into discussing collective racism - which you and I are probably 99% in agreement on.

I'm addressing individual racism. You seem to deny its existence. I note whites can be victimized by racism on an individual level. You merely back into the collective notion in order to rebut. Which doesn't address my individual response. I agree that whites, collectively, cannot be victims of racism in our current society of institutional racism and white privilege. So, I'm not sure who you're arguing against there.

Care to address what I actually said?

(And look, if it's going to be five paragraphs of non sequitur word salad, just say "No" and save both our heads the brick wall)

[LanternWaste]

13. I inferred precisely the same sentiment from your post.

" I'm not sure being helpful is really the point of any of this. Not. At. All..."

I inferred precisely the same sentiment from your post; though you'll no doubt allege your righteous sincerity and concern for POC.

[Prism]

29. Meh

We shall both survive this trial, I'm sure.

[Chitown Kev]

15. Be VERY careful bringing Orwell into this conversation

which you are doing when you talk about Newsspeak.

Orwell wrote quite a but about the racism that African Americans face and even more about racism in the context of British imperialism.

In my reading of Orwell, Orwell would totally get what the Dartmouth students are doing and why they are doing it.

Also since you are fond of calling people (esp. black people that don't agree with you) homophobes, remember that Orwell was a homophobe.

[Prism]

26. That's a, dare I say, Orwellian version of Orwell there

I doubt a man who spoke out against authoritarianism, contorted speech, and forced uniformity in ideology would be particularly amused by the modern incarnations of it.

I'm fond of calling homophobes homophobes. I've got years of linkable posts to run on. And do you really want to pull that, "It's bad to call people who disagree with you bigoted," card from your sleeve? C'mon, man. That's just funny in light of the past few months.

Here's a fun fact for you to digest, btw, since you're keen on keeping people apprised of historical homophobia. The article you linked in your OP, the one by HamdenRice? That guy was one of the very few long-term people on DU ever banned for homophobia. He had to work on it. A straight up banning for homophobia of long-term posters is almost unheard of around here. But, yep, he managed it. Your friends? Were pissed. And then claimed he wasn't a homophobe, and it was just those mean gays who did it.

Keep what company you will, but you're new here and know little to nothing of the history of many of the posters outside of what they tell you. So try not to speak so authoritatively, eh? It's supremely silly.

[pintobean]

16. Another excellent post, Prism. /nt

[FLPanhandle]

20. Great post

It'll go over the heads of many here though.

[guillaumeb]

31. Well said.

Racism can be collective, institutionalized, or individual. Or a combination. Targeting someone because of race is racism.

[MellowDem]

9. I generally agree with you...

but I think some things some liberals say about racism or privilege actually feed into this right wing narrative of white victimization.

For one thing, privilege is much more complicated than just white privilege in the context of the US, but it is often spoke of as a sort of end all be all, which obviously leads to glaring examples of where "white privilege" doesn't have the same meaning.

Another, this idea that blacks "cannot be racist", which I understand comes down to definitions of racism, but under the vast majority of people's understanding of racism, it's a pretty silly idea that drives a lot of them away from liberals IMHO. And again, it's such a localized, simplistic view (can Asians be racist? How about someone who is half black and half white?) that is easily problematized so that it comes across as an excuse rather than a very specific definition of racism often used in academia in a very specific context of time and place.

It's very probable some of your ancestors were subject to slavery, and that most people, of whatever color, have slave holders among their ancestors. The point is that it wasn't as recent, but it's a point that needs to be made because the right will jump all over it.

Basically, a lot of discussions of privilege and race are so provincial that they're easily undermined by the right who want to push their narrative of white victimization.

Really, I see so many people get sidetracked by trying to somehow prove hypothetically how it's IMPOSSIBLE for white people to be victims that the much better and easier argument that white people are victimized much less compared to others in our society is just ignored.

[BainsBane]

14. I had ancestors who were indentured servants

That is how my father's side came to this country. However, their servitude was not permanent.

When I talk about white privilege, I mean race alone. As I pointed out, it does not mean all forms of privilege. I noted that I grew up on welfare, disadvantaged economically. That doesn't mean I didn't reap certain benefits from being white, however.
The word privilege isn't the point, however. My post is in response to a rather concerning increase in arguments among "progressives" that they are subject to racism. It is unseemly and false. It also works to deny the real, structural racism that continues to take hundreds of black lives in this country every year.

[ck4829]

10. As long as we have 'race', there will be racism

Now obviously talk about race, we're not going to get anywhere if we just want to stick our fingers in our ears and ignore all discussions of race.

But white supremacy exists and black oppression is real because of the imaginary and socially constructed racial categories of 'black', 'white', 'asian', etc.

Who constructed these categories? Why do we maintain them collectively? And what steps can we take to abolish these categories?

[Bobbie Jo]

17. Thank you

The very concept of "white racism" is absurd on its face.

Excellent post.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. No. For now, racism still means racism.

I'm aware that you, and a minority of other people, would like to change the meaning of the word to "Racism by white people against non-white people".

And maybe some day you will succeed, although I hope not.

But to pretend that its meaning *has already changed*, just because a few people are using it in a different sense and calling everyone else who uses it to mean what it has always meant names, is simply wrong.

[BainsBane]

25. I'm not changing the meaning

What do you suppose the term meant in the 19th century or the 1960s? Did you grow up learning about a Civil Rights movement of white people who had to assert their voting rights, throw off the yoke of lynching and Jim Crow?
Racism means racial subjugation, in which one race dominates another. The change came from the White Power/White Supremacist movement that generated the ideology of White victimhood, of so-called reverse racism, in order to argue that whites were the ones persecuted by Affirmative Action and the Civil Rights movement. That so many use that meaning today and claim it is original shows how deeply the far right has permeated our culture.

I challenge you to find a historical use of the term that predates the Civil Rights movement. If that is, as you claim, its original meaning, you could be able to find it pretty easily.

[CheRan]

32. Google does wonders

[link:http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=racist|

There are many different definitions for racism.

[Waldorf]

21. Totally disagree. If somebody says or does something to me based on the color of my skin, I call it

racist. I know a lot of people will call it bigotry, but for me its being racist.

[BainsBane]

27. Words are important for what the signal about society

In your analysis, the word is more important than the social and political structure that gives that word meaning.
Yet the same people who make that claim also tend to be those who insist bigoted words they might like to use don't really mean what everyone knows that do, that terms like c...t and w...e aren't misogynist. The one commonality is both of those cases is that language serves to maintain power and subjugation of the subaltern.

[sheshe2]

22. This whole thread is a very informative read.

Thanks Bains for adding some of your family history as well.

[jaysunb]

23. +1 You are absolutely correct about the informative nature of this

thread, as it has--for me at least-- shown a light on the thinking of " some " folks that, until today, I had respect for.

[Android3.14]

24. Racism IS many things

And one of those things is that persons of any race can express the trait.

Just as members of one religion can subjugate members of another, and then in a different context see the roles reversed, so it is true for members of racial groups.

The fallacy that you are expressing here is the notion that the way to make things equal is to switch the roles and punish the privileged race in the same way that the victim race is currently experiencing.

Bigotry is bigotry, and the most insidious kind of bigot is the man or woman who does not realize he or she is a bigot.

Politely telling someone that they should just shut up and accept the bigotry from a (insert color here) person because, after all, they are (insert a different color here) is, in fact, the behavior of a racist.

That might be why some folks keep revisiting the "can non-whites be racists" aspect of this issue. They are subconsciously expressing the dissonance of their own racist behavior as it bumps up against their expressed beliefs that racism is bad.

The novels Animal Farm and The Wave and the classic Brown Eye classroom experiment show how easy it is for the current victims of bigotry to become that which they hate.

[guillaumeb]

30. While many racists in the US talk about racism directed against whites

in an attempt to excuse their own racism, it does not follow that whites cannot be the targets of racial animus. White power is institutionalized in the US, as the history of the US makes quite clear, but any targeting of a specific group based solely on skin color certainly sounds like racial animus to me.

So if you stated that whites were/are never the target of institutional racism in the US I would agree.

[tertris3240]

33. speaking of racists

I read the other day that bernie goetz the subway racist shooter may finally get what's coming to him by being evicted. the way white people and the power structure support vigilantism is code for racism in my book. the name of the guy who will seal bernie's fate is bill collis.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bernie-goetz-fighting-eviction-pet-squirrel-article-1.2274624

[BainsBane]

38. Interesing

and I of course agree such vigilantism is racism.

[kentuck]

35. Rampant...

from all corners.