What Bothers Me About Reverse Racism

"Reverse racism" is a term used by the white, majority culture to describe what is felt as discrimination against them, usually in the form of less preferential treatment when it comes to school admission or job hiring.

This is often a response to “affirmative action” or “diversity initiatives”, in which communities that have been historically marginalized are given preferential treatment.

The current backlash in American (white) culture to DEI (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) initiatives is rooted in the idea that the white culture is receiving less preferential treatment than other groups. Spurred on by what he perceives as a demand from his base, “(President-elect) Trump and his advisers have already threatened the funds and accreditation of universities they have labeled the ‘enemy’, and pledged to dismantle diversity offices across federal agencies, scrap diversity reporting requirements and use civil rights enforcement mechanisms to combat diversity initiatives they see as ‘discrimination’". (Click here for the article in The Guardian Dec 5, 2024.)

Yesterday I saw a Twitter thread that outlined in great detail a case of discrimination a white person had experienced in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s. The writer was not the victim, an intern was, but he participated in the events due to pressure from the company and HR. Recently he contacted the victim and apologized for what happened. 

In June of 2023 SCOTUS ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. It had become clear that race or color was often a determining factor in admissions decisions. This was specifically related to practices at the University of North Carolina and Harvard College, but the decision effectively impacted all explicit efforts to make sure that people of color have equal opportunities for higher education.

Those who supported the SCOTUS decision claimed that colleges and universities (as well as various hiring practices and DEI initiatives) had practiced “reverse racism”, discriminating against whites.

Something about the claim of reverse discrimination bothers me, although I haven’t been able to put my finger on it. I think I now know what it is:

What bothers me is that white people have discriminated against Blacks, Browns and Asians for decades and centuries. Especially Blacks, dating back to the 1500s (or use the standard date, 1619). For centuries, up until the civil rights movement of the 60s, Blacks have been legally and physically enslaved or discriminated against.

And it is still going on, despite law changes. I talk regularly with Blacks and Asians who tell me how they experience discrimination. This includes very recently in the church community to which I belong.

Affirmative action started in the early 60s with JFK’s executive order requiring government contractors to hire on an equal basis. Johnson continued the trend with the Civil Rights Act of ‘64 and his own executive orders.

So affirmative action, the legal requirement that race not play a role in hiring in the US, is younger than I am.

So, you have one group in the US that has been enslaved and discriminated against for 400+ years.

Another group, the whites, who have been the enslavers and discriminators (not sure that is a word), have had to deal with “reverse racism” for a couple of decades.  

And now the whites are squealing like stuck pigs.

How awful that I am being discriminated against!!!

I believe that any discrimination solely based on race or gender is not a long-term viable path for a society*, but I struggle with the lack of sense of proportionality or history. I wish the note of sorrow for what our people did, and the call for repentance and reconciliation would sound as loud as the squealing over reverse racism.

It comes across to me as another form of white privilege: how dare “they” do that to “us” (when “we” have been doing it to “them” for centuries). 

I wish that leaders would recognize more explicitly the role played by the white community, including and sometimes especially the church community, in promoting or allowing or defending racism, sexism, sexual abuse etc. etc. to the same level they are squealing about their rights being threatened. 

When the voice protesting a couple of decades of reverse racism is louder than the voice repenting and seeking restoration for centuries of embedded racism perpetrated by that very community, I have a problem.

I struggle with that community when it elects someone to the presidency whose campaign is characterized by racist statements and tropes (some of them taken directly from Hitler) without a word of protest about that language (which is different than legitimate discussion about the border), but hollers bloody murder when their kid doesn’t get admitted to Harvard. 

That’s what bothers me about the reverse racism discussion. 

*In her opinion on the Grutter vs. Bollinger case in 1973, in which the court upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s consideration of race “as one factor among many”, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stated that “student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions,” but she hoped that race would not be a factor forever. She wrote that it was her hope that in 25 years, “the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest” in diversity.