White guy explains why racism against whiteness is not a thing that exists.
A thread
1/
Racism is wrong.
That is a topic that white people seem to get. But why do some people think discrimination is equally wrong when it is supposedly applied to "anti-whiteness"?
Pop quiz: Why is a hate crime worse than a regular crime?
2/
The reason a hate crime is so bad is because it puts an entire community at risk by helping to manifest an irrational societal hatred toward racialized groups.
3/
Racism is not the same as prejudice on the basis of race. That would make the term pointless. Racism is only useful to identify prejudice under the belief that a group of people is inferior.
4/
So, can a minority assert that whites are inferior?
No.
While some might find it fun to try, there is no social capital for the idea that whiteness is inferior, because there can be no social risk under system that enforces white supremacy.
5/
Does this mean that interpersonal racism cannot exist outside of a framework of systemic racism?
That is correct.
6/
People have been claiming reverse racism and anti-white sentiment were going to happen since at least the 1970s. But racism doesn't happen just because negativity and hatred go "too far". Racism is upheld by a majority oppressive class in the form of white supremacy.
7/
We don't hear the term 'reverse racism' much anymore... I think most people know that it is a cringey idea that doesn't exist. No matter how prejudiced I am against white people, I can't influence social tensions to put the white community at risk.
8/
Is prejudice bad? Is hating someone because they are white bad? Sure. You don't have to accept hatred and negativity just because you can't call it racism.
It is about as bad as hating people named Chris.
9/
Are you going to start standing up against Chris'ism and protecting all the poor people named Chris?
10/
Actual racism is dangerous when it has the backing of a social movement.
Actual racism is inherently abhorrent, because it feeds the system that justifies continuing hatred and subjugation of marginalized people.
11/
If a Black person says white people suck, someone will reply "that's racist!" But they'll forget to mention that it's an isolated and insignificant form of racial prejudice.
Racism only has meaning due to a history and context which white people can't claim for themselves.
12/
You may argue that some white ethnicities have been oppressed. Jewish, Romanian, etc. people can certainly be victims of racism.
Yet these communities are oppressed, not for their whiteness, but for other elements of racialized identity (or even for not being white enough).
13/
White people are not subjugated by their race.
It is very reductive to complain about anti-white racism because it is disrespectful and dismissive of what racism means to it's real victims. Let's quit doing it.