This is not racist.
I think that what some of you are feeling is commonly called “Reverse Racism.” It’s an idea that focuses on prejudiced attitudes towards white people. It’s discrimination, or unequal personal treatment, but it’s not racism. It’s not racism because it ignores one of racism’s central markers: power. It’s commonly understood by sociologists and researchers that racism is more than just prejudicial treatment. Prejudice plus power is the widely accepted basic definition of racism. Or, as two researchers defined it in 1988: “Racism equals power plus prejudice.”
White people may be discriminated against; for example, by ethnic minority business owners who prefer to employ someone from their common backgrounds. This may sometimes be unlawful. At other times, it may be a lawful form of “positive action” or “affirmative action” aimed at reducing historically entrenched, intergenerational and systemic inequalities. But in all these instances—and regardless of whether it’s lawful or not—the term racism, or reverse racism, doesn’t apply because, currently, the favored group does not have, and is not able to use, power or influence.
