There Is No Such Thing as Reverse Racism

When is man’s inhumanity to man going to end? The news is full of the horror of another promising young Black man gunned down by the force of White oppression.

And yet the backlash is ever-present.

I can never understand what it means to be Black and targeted for different treatment just because of the color of my skin.

But I still hear people talking about experiencing racism as White people from Black and other minority ethnic people and it makes me mad. It is just impossible. It doesn’t happen. The oppressed might be rising up and standing up for themselves but that doesn’t make them racist.

“It seems the more we talk about racism, the stronger another narrative becomes — one that paints white people as the ones who are truly oppressed.” — Manisha Krishnan, writing for Vice

The hashtag #alllivesmatter is grossly insulting to anyone who has been aware from birth that their lives don’t matter as much as the people for whom systemic racism is something they are part of rather than the targets of.

It is the same contradiction as men saying that feminists are misandrists by standing up for themselves. Saying that feminists hate men is missing the mark completely. As Marie Shear said, “Feminism is the radical concept that women are people too.” The oppressed cannot also be the oppressors.

Imagine a prisoner and a jailer in an invisible prison. The jailer might say to the prisoner, “Hey, you can get up and walk out of here anytime you like.” But he doesn’t see the walls and the bars that the prisoner knows are there. Because he isn’t trapped behind them.

The prisoner knows he is imprisoned and the jailer is the one keeping him there. But the jailer can go about his business freely without even realizing his position of freedom and power.

Racism should feel uncomfortable to you

We’ve all seen how Meghan Markle has been treated. Accused of lying about the racism she faced at the hands of the Royal staff and British journalists, because, how dare she think she can infiltrate such a family and not possess the right skin tone?

It has made me think twice about the British Royal family that many of us admire and revere. It is an institution after all, and institutions are notorious for being inherently judgmental and prejudiced at best, racist at worst.

I remember I had an uncle in the police force who made racist jokes when I was growing up. The memory has stuck with me, and I can only guess that it’s because I struggled to understand how someone I respected and loved could be so casually mean and dismissive towards an entire group of people. And laugh about it.

We need to check our privilege and do whatever we can to start to put ourselves in the shoes of Black people and POC. We are not doing nearly enough yet.

Watch Netflix documentary 13th, about the imbalance of the number of Black prisoners in US jails. The statistics are staggering and disturbing.

Take the time to watch BlaKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods or Sorry to Bother You to get an idea of how it feels to be Black in America.

Read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race or The Underground Railroad. Read and learn what Black people have been subjected to at the hands of White people for centuries. Don’t just learn about it during Black history month, but keep on learning until you get it.

There are so many amazing books and films that can begin to put it in perspective for you.

If you have friends who are Black, can you talk to them about their experiences of racism? And more importantly, can they be truly open, knowing you will listen?

Stop accepting the unacceptable

Personally I feel cosseted in a society that doesn’t feel the need to embrace change because it isn’t considered to be relevant here. That position is so far beyond privilege, it’s inconceivable unless you live somewhere like this. It feels wrong to me but I feel powerless to change anything while living somewhere so Whitewashed.

I tried to introduce the book Why I’m No Longer Speaking to White People About Race by British author Reni Eddo-Lodge, as a topic for discussion at my book club. Instead of engaging in a discussion about the very real issues raised, one of the women in the group began loudly regaling us with stories of racism her brother experienced at the hands of Black people on his travels around the world — because of his Whiteness. I had to roll my eyes and shut down the discussion.

I’m not part of that book club any more. I got the distinct feeling that the reason those women live here is probably because it is a bastion of Whiteness, far away from the ethnically mixed cities they escaped from. Stepford wife suburban perfection with any otherness erased from view. A level playing field of middle-class mediocrity and maddening blindness to some of the horrors existing beyond this privileged enclave.

White people can’t experience reverse racism because they have never experienced oppression, subjugation, slavery, the way that Black people have. It is not just in their history, it is in their DNA. It’s where they come from, it’s in their names.

When people were first allowed to choose their surnames after being released from slavery it is no wonder so many of them chose Freeman or Freedman. But even carrying that name is an echo of a time when Black men and women were not free. They were owned. They were whipped, beaten and suffered unimaginable horrors as they were worked to death to build the White man’s empire.

If you don’t live it, learn about it

I asked Pigeon English author Stephen Kelman if he could have ever written a book like that if he had grown up in a place like I live. He said it was unlikely, because he lived among the gangs of kids struggling to fit in where they felt like they didn’t belong. The central character is Harri Opoku, a Ghanaian immigrant boy trying to navigate his way through school and life, experiencing racism on a daily basis, like most BIPOC kids do.

A White guy writing about Black kids’ experiences in London with knowledge and understanding, sympathetically and with humor is a rare treat. He had clearly gained an understanding; an understanding that many of us are lacking because we haven’t lived it or even seen it happening, so we struggle to engage and empathize.

I write a lot about feminism and sometimes I receive comments from people letting me know they appreciate my viewpoint and that it resonates with them as members of another grossly misrepresented and oppressed group — not because of their gender but because of their skin color. I get it and I feel you.

If you have White skin and the privilege that accompanies it, don’t ever claim that anyone is being racist towards you.

Reverse racism is a myth dreamt up by White people to maintain their role as the oppressors.

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Previously Published on medium

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Photo credit: by James Eades on Unsplash