During a panel discussion on Ferguson this past week, an Ohio University student asked about reverse racism.
During a panel discussion on Ferguson this past week, an Ohio University student asked about reverse racism. Assistant Professor Dr. Debra Thompson was quick to step in and clear up that reverse racism does not exist. Racism against white people as well as sexism against men, or misandry, don’t exist.
You may be thinking, “But what about that one time when this female/person of color said something and I as a white person/male felt offended!” That is not reverse racism or sexism. What you were experiencing was someone being prejudiced (having a preconceived notion of someone) and it was deemed a threat to the privilege you have as either a male, a white person, or both.
But first we must understand what sexism and racism mean. According to DailyKos.com, racism is “based on an ideological belief that one ‘race’ is somehow better than another ‘race.’ ” Race is in quotation marks because there is no such thing as race. It is a social construct used to discriminate against others. For example the Irish in the early 1800s were labeled as “non-white.”
Similarly, sexism is a system which gives benefit to one sex while excluding all others. Misandry is not institutionalized, but misogyny is. Here’s a crazy example: if the women of Congress wanted to enact a law to control men’s reproductive rights, they would have no ability to do so since only 20 percent of Congress are females. What about if all the female CEOs of major American corporations wanted to sue the government because the health insurance they are legally supposed to provide to men goes against their religious beliefs? Catalyst.org states that only 4.8 percent of the Fortune 500 are women and if they ever did make it to the Supreme Court, the male majority would almost certainly shut them down.
Along the same lines, if people of color dislike white people, they can do also nothing about it because they do not have the political or economic power that white people do. African Americans make up a little over 8 percent of Congress and Latinos make up just under 7 percent according to the Congressional Research Service. On the opposite side of the power structure, Huffington Post reported that one in three black men will end up in prison.
If your response to that is not “What is wrong with our system?” but rather “It’s because they commit more crimes!” then you’re a racist. This country has an incredibly racist justice system in which black people are targeted by the police more, which is exemplified by drug-offense sentencing. African Americans make up only 13 percent of drug users but 46 percent of those convicted for drug use according to the Huffington Post. The Wall Street Journal also reports that once convicted, African Americans have 20 percent longer sentences than white people for committing the same crime.
Racism and sexism are based off of a power structure. Those who benefit from these power structures, white people and males, need to understand that they cannot experience reverse racism or sexism.
Jessica Ensley is a senior studying journalism. Email her at je726810@ohio.edu.
