Racism and Other Related Topics 101: Broken Down and Made Simple

Racism

Racism is the belief in inherent racial differences amongst and between different sets of people's. This belief is then used as a justification for non-equal treatment of the entire population of members of a certain race (sic). The important knockout punch here and that is packed with racism is provided by this—a group possessing the belief in these inherent differences also possessing the social capitol and “power” to enforce their racist views and beliefs within a cultural, governmental and/or global context. This understanding is also one of the core elements behind the term “institutionalized” or “structural" racism.

Most post modern biologists, anthropologists and sociologists reject the idea of “race” that is an important aspect of the concept of racism, preferring to rely on more empirically verifiable concepts such as ethnicity. These truths however, have not found their way into the common understanding of the average person nor has the power of racism been significantly reduced and certainly not nullified as a result of this fact.

Institutionalized Racism (aka: Structural Racism)

Institutionalized racism occurs when racist ideas, philosophies, attitudes and enforcement become enshrined in a culture’s fundamental and important institutions such as a cultures governmental institutions, financial institutions, educational institutions, political institutions, judicial institutions, law enforcement institutions, etc. It is racial discrimination by these and other large and powerful institutions that have the power to influence the lives of a very large cross section of people. Stokely Carmichael is credited with inventing the term in the late 1960s.

With these understandings it becomes clear that one and only one socio-political cultural group on the planet has the inherent and demonstrated power to universally translate the racism that exists in the hearts, souls and minds of some of its members, into a powerful channel of enforcement—white people.

Prejudice

Prejudice is simply a pre-judgment or assumptions made about someone or a group of people without the requisite or corresponding knowledge or information to substantiate such a judgment.

Discrimination

Discrimination is prejudicial treatment of an individual or an entire group of people based solely on their membership in a certain group.

“Reverse Racism”

Other ethnic groups such as African American's, Arabs, Latinos, Ethnic Chinese, various Indigenous Peoples, American Indians, Jews (who do not assimilate as whites) and others may have members who hold extremely biased and prejudiced attitudes and beliefs against other races (sic) and ethnic groups. None of these groups however, have historically nor in current times had the same degree of social power to enforce their views in the same ways that white people have. Such people and groups may have the power to enforce such views regionally but certainly not globally. The sheer overarching power of white people on a global and social scale is simply too massive for that.

Such ethnic groups may also have members who believe their racial (sic) or ethnic group is superior to white people. In a practical sense, this does not matter because there is no corresponding social power to enforce such a stance on global cultural reality. The most such an ethnic group member can engage in is hate speech and/or ethnically based terrorism and/or ethnic cleansing. These are terrible and horrifying sure enough. This however, is not the same as having the global power and all the systems thereof to back up ones actions with. And in any case hate speech, terrorism, and genocide/ethnic cleansing are also the evidential purview of white racists/supremacists as well, as history has well taught us and continues to teach us. 

Whatever non white racial (sic) or ethnic group such a person is a member of will be one that does not ultimately possess the overarching social power to enforce such beliefs in anywhere near the degree a white person/group would be able to.

Given this understanding, a term such a “reverse racism” is essentially a red herring/straw man of a term primarily used to confuse, manipulate and alter the truth/discourse in conversations around race, ethnicity, power, white privilege, etc. The phrase has no real meaning except in the minds of those who choose to use or believe in the legitimacy of such a term. In reality this term is a made up term with no real practical or legitimate social meaning whatsoever.

“Playing the Race Card”

Similarly, the phrase “playing the race card” is also a red herring/straw man of a phrase. This term is often used as an indication that a member of any racial (sic) or ethnic group other than white people has the power in fact to use their very real societal and cultural victimization in a way to gain some kind of real demonstrable power in a specific situation. For example, it is often used in legal/courtroom proceedings as a way to present the theory that a real or imagined crime committed by a member of a non-dominant racial or ethnic group such as African Americans, can be minimized, justified or erased because the person belongs to a group that has historically been victimized in one or more ways. This is what people who believe in the concept of reverse racism would like us all to believe. It is essentially a very well constructed wool such people attempt to use to pull over the eyes of unsuspecting naive people and people who don't really have a firm grasp on how white privilege and racism intercept in the world.

Here is what people who believe in reverse racism don't want you to know: In reality, it is only white people who can consistently and successfully use the so called race card against members of other racial (sic) and ethnic groups because only white people, in most situations, have the social capitol and power to do so. An example of this can be seen in the 2008 general election in California specifically regarding the ballot initiative known as Proposition 8. Here was an initiative that set out to define marriage as something that could only legitimately exist between one man and one woman. In essence it was an attempt to even further marginalize non-heterosexual or same gender loving/LGBT relationships. Proposition 8 passed in the state of California. After the polls closed, a theory was put forth that the proposition passed as the direct result of a high number of African American and Latin voters in California voting in favor of the discriminatory proposition. In this instance, the playing of the race card was successfully used primarily by members of the white, gay male communities of California. African American and Latin LGBT people in California (and beyond) suffered a tangible and in some cases, a physically violent backlash from this that would not have been suffered by white LGBT people to the same extent if the tables had been turned. This is because African American and Latin LGBT people do not have anywhere near the social capitol nor political power within either the larger United States cultural milieu nor the mainstream LGBT communities within America that their white especially male counterparts possess.

Other historical examples of this same applied principal/understanding are:

A. The way Japanese Americans were treated and perceived by the general American populous, at the time, in America, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

B. The way Muslim and Arab Americans have been treated and perceived by the general American populous since 9/11

C. The way Native Americans/American Indians/First Nation Peoples have been treated and perceived in America and Canada since their lands were invaded and stolen by European colonists and invaders for the last several hundred years in North and South America.

D. The type, breadth and scope of disrespect, name calling and vitriol shown to President Barack H. Obama by members of the media, political pundits and and those who make their living through political commentary and that is unprecedented in modern American politics, including during the 2 presidential terms of George W. Bush.

White Privilege

White privilege is the belief that whites hold a large number of advantages in the world that are implicit and explicit and granted to them in society simply for being white. It is similar to The Fundamental Attribution Error found in the field of psychology.

Some people who dispute the existence of white privilege often like to site the fact that whites also suffer death, hardship, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, illness and all manner of social ills just like everyone else as proof that white privilege does not exist. This is essentially an ad hominen argument because the critical race theory by which the concept of white privilege came about never purported an understanding of white privilege as being akin to a comic book like super power that white people supposedly possess. Quite the contrary. White privilege is the expression of a normative structure in society that explicitly and implicitly both simultaneously provides societaladvantage to whites and societal disadvantage to non-whites. It has to do with the normalization of part of one's identity (whiteness) in a way that is so congruent with being a member of the dominant culture for there to be little or no distinction between the two.