***I'm looking for a discussion on Race matters, I don't want to offend anybody, but I am curious about Reverse Racism.
Also, I understand that the term Reverse Racism is actually meaningless from one commenter, but from another the term means something much more. It means atonement for many racist whites who think Black people as a whole want to seek revenge on what their ancestors did. No, that is not true. MLK Jr. told us we need to move past color and think of ourselves as one.
There is only racism, bigotry, and hatred. But we must remember also, that hate and racism is passed down from generation to generation.***
That's what it seems like, when you take in to account the fact that Ms. Sherrod's father was murdered by a white man who was never convicted. A classical tale of institutionalized racism, and it still happens today.
But, normal Black people like me, (the type of Black person who hasn't experienced hate and racism on the level of Ms. Sherrod) have a hard time having a conversation with a white person on racism.
I remember a class my freshman year in high school, we were having a class discussion on racism.
It didn't take long for the discussion to start bordering on offensive, but it ended when a white classmate yelled out "If Black people don't like it here why don't they just go back to Africa!?"
My mistake was not retorting with something that would make her rethink her racist attitude. Tell her something she didn't know about, something she was probably sheltered from . . . But instead I responded with a STFU, which made the teacher end the discussion.
Great, first ever discussion I have about racism in school and it ends worse than it began.
You'd have to be ignorant to tell me to go back to Africa if I don't like America, the country that bred me. I'd laugh in your face and tell you to go back to Europe, or some other country over there in the Netherlands. Because neither one of us belongs here, this is Indian country.
White people showed up a long time ago and robbed the Indians of everything they had, then they rowed up to Africa and stole/bought Africans and brought them back to the stolen land for free, stolen labor. Back in those days, Africans were ideal for pain-staking labor in a hot sun all day long, but majority of the Black folks working in the fields were dark.
The light skin Black people had less laborous task like tending to the house and kids etc. Which created a rift in Black culture that still exist today, kind of.
The Plutocrats of those times in America's history decided to pit poor Whites against poor Blacks. Really, we're quite similar, but because the Plutocrats were busy making plans to overthrow and rob our country, they needed to create something that could distract an entire nation of people.
And look, the invention of racism in America. So for years after the slaves were freed, white people have been finding ways to probably, send us back to Africa. Through outright hate and bigotry, to terrorist groups like the KKK:
Even the federal government became involved with racism, particularly in the South. The Jim Crow laws will, and should forever be remembered as evil.
Lynchings were really rampant in the South, I can't imagine the nightmares, the fear my people used to feel not knowing who was next. Not knowing if you'd wake up with a burning cross in your lawn must be completely terrifying.
Let us not stop there though, ever hear about Blackface?
It gets worse, Black people in America are statistically the worst off group of people.
As soon as a Black person like me or someone who has actually experienced real, hateful racism, brings up either our history or the modern ills of Black people in America, we get told to shut up.
That nobody really wants to talk about racism, or that some people really believe we are past racism in this country because of the election of Barack Obama, the first Black (and White) President.
So we get called reverse racist, what really is a reverse racist?
Reverse Racism - Wiki
Reverse discrimination, also known as positive discrimination, is discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. Groups may be defined in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, or other factors. This discrimination may seek to redress social inequalities where minority groups have been denied access to the same privileges of the majority group. In such cases it is intended to remove discrimination that minority groups may already face. "Reverse discrimination" may also be used to highlight the discrimination inherent in affirmative action programs.
White people are the all powerful, majority race, and not but around 100 years ago were Black people actually recognized as full human beings in this country.
White people of today will have you believe reverse racism is worse than real racism. Why is that? Maybe because now it's white men who are becoming the minority. Because people like White women, it's the men who are being persecuted and opressed now.
Tim Wise is a great man and one of the few white men who actually understand everything there is about our history. Racism is dying and White people today are more aware to the fact that we are all the same with our unique differences.
But in modern America there are Black people in positions of power, hundreds of times more than just 40-50 years ago. Which brings to rise this new form of racism, reverse racism.
So if I'm to understand this correctly, reverse racism is racism against the majority group, which happens to be White people (namely white men). The most obvious scenario of reverse racism comes in the form of a job interview.
Where the Black person is the hiring manager and the White person is the job seeker. The Black person upon seeing this White person, is reminded of hundreds of years of slavery our ancestors had to go through. To 20th century racism to the hidden, more coded Racism of today.
When the Black person sees this White person, there are more layers to his reasons than outright hatred and bigotry. This doesn't go for everyone, because some Black people have a bult-in dislike of White people due to the hate our ancestors used to receive. But I can safely say majority of Blacks are aware to racism when it shows, and we remember every experience.
This is Shirley Sherrod's story, at first when she saw this White farmer she saw the White farmer that murdered her father, she saw the KKK, but she later realized that, that way of thinking is wrong. She reconciled with these people and now she is friends with them.
When a Black job seeker comes into an interview, to a White hiring manager, how do the roles reverse?
Does the White person think about history or does he rely on stereotypes?
When do personal experiences contradict racism or even reverse racism?
Say this White person was mugged by a Black person on the way to work, that would probably help shape his decision when met with his job prospects.
I'm not trying to offend anyone, but I'd like to have a discussion on Race and Reverse Racism.
Once we get the discussion of Race out of the way, where we are all comfortable with each other's skin colors, then we can move on to discuss the ongoing Class War.