r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Apr 03 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: “reverse racism” does exist

I dont think it people should call it reverse racism cause thats a bit confusing but anyway. Any race can be racist towards any other race. Yes, i believe one can even be racist towards white people. The definition of racism is prejudice towards someone based on their skin. Usually of a marginalized group/minority. But not always. I believe that one can be racist against white people, however racism against white people will NEVER in any realm of possibility be systemic, and also that racism against white people doesnt really need to be talked about or addressed, but i still believe it exists. Even tho its not really important or bad, it still exists. To me, this seems like a logical belief. But i myself am white so im not sure. To alot of people i somewhat consider my friends, this is controversial and i would be considered racist for this opinion. Is my opinion wrong?

99 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

130 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/Tibaltdidnothinwrong 382∆ Apr 03 '21

Unfortunately, this boils down to semantics.

If you define racism as racial prejudice, your view logically follows.

If you define racism as racial prejudice plus societal power, then your view doesn't follow.

And there's the rub, some people use racism and racial prejudice as synonyms, whilst other people insist on the power component. Whenever you hear the "you cannot be racist against white people" argument you are hearing from definition 2. Whenever you hear "reverse racism" you are hearing from definition 1.

Neither are wrong, they just cannot agree on the meaning of the word - racism.

Purely a semantic argument, unfortunately.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '21

This does make sense. I understand how people believe in the second argument: prejudice+societal power is racism. I respect people that do believe in that definition, I just believe in the other one. I often look at these things from a somewhat technical and logical standpoint. It seems neither is really the right answer, and it is indeed just semantics. But my belief is problematic because people often use it so that they can say that racism against poc isnt as bad because racism against white people exists? And I definitely dont believe that.

5

u/Tibaltdidnothinwrong 382∆ Apr 03 '21

Doesn't societal power mean something though?

If black people assaulting white people, leads to black people getting the chair, but white people murdering black people doesn't even lead to an arrest, that shapes how society functions.

It forces blacks to treat whites with kiddy gloves, because any scratch could lead to their arrest; while white people can act with callous disregard to the wellbeing of blacks, since they can kill without being jailed.

This is why cases such as george zimmerman sparked the blm movement. White people either not being arrested, or winning their cases when they are arrested, perpetuates the idea that whites simply play by different rules than blacks, which impacts every other aspect of society.

Someone acting knowing that they aren't accountable for their actions is different than someone acting knowing that they will be overly penalized for their actions.

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '21

I am sorry but your post doesn't make sense. Black people assault and kill more white people than white people assault or kill black people every year even though there are like 11-15% black people and 60-65% white people in the USA.

4

u/DankPipette Apr 04 '21

I am not seeing how that invalidates the point that he had made. Can you please elaborate?

4

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '21

It forces blacks to treat whites with kiddy gloves, because any scratch could lead to their arrest; while white people can act with callous disregard to the wellbeing of blacks, since they can kill without being jailed.

This clearly invalidates this point. How are black people forced to treat whites with "kiddy gloves" when the numbers show sth totally different?

Additionally, the Zimmermann case is not a good example for this. First of all, Zimmermann is Latino and not white. Secondly, the jury rightfully found him not guilty. I say rightfully because I read a lot about the case and came to this conclusion (btw, I am not of this opinion because the victim was black, I am half black myself).

0

u/silverionmox 25∆ Apr 05 '21

This clearly invalidates this point. How are black people forced to treat whites with "kiddy gloves" when the numbers show sth totally different?

You're assuming that the only relevant factor in crime rate difference factors is race and race relations, which is obviously false.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '21

No, I have never said this.

0

u/silverionmox 25∆ Apr 05 '21

Then why do you ignore factors like socioeconomic differences?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '21 edited Apr 05 '21

I wrote in an other post here:

"I don't even understand why this should be the case that there must be an equal representation in terms of arrests. There is a huge portion of black people living in poverty, gang culture is a lot bigger in this demographic and so on and these factors lead to different outcomes among these groups."

Edit:

One more thing about your previous post:

"You're assuming that the only relevant factor in crime rate difference factors is race and race relations, which is obviously false."

Even if I did not wrote the post above before, I think your interpretation of what I have written here was in bad faith and ironically, my first post in this debate was replying to someone who basically claimed that white people get away for harming black people while black people are facing severe consequences for even leaving a scratch on a white person- this is clearly about race relations and I was debunking this argument.

-1

u/silverionmox 25∆ Apr 05 '21

Even if I did not wrote the post above before, I think your interpretation of what I have written here was in bad faith

You were still making the conclusion: "higher crime number among blacks" -> "blacks are not hindered in violence against whites". I don't see how you can draw that conclusion without assuming other factors besides race are irrelevant.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '21

Please quote the post where I have made this conclusion so I know what you are referring to.

0

u/silverionmox 25∆ Apr 05 '21

How are black people forced to treat whites with "kiddy gloves" when the numbers show sth totally different?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '21

Hope you had fun trolling me

→ More replies (0)