"When whites talk about reverse discrimination, I feel that they are making a silly argument, because what they really want to say is that we, people of color, have the power to do to them what they have done to us from the 13th century," said Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, professor of sociology at Duke University and author of Racism Without Racists. Silva said reverse racism implies minorities in the U.S. have the power and privilege to wholly discriminate against white people.
"We do not control the economy," Silva added, "we do not control politics -- despite the election of Obama. We don't control much of this country."
"When whites talk about reverse discrimination, I feel that they are making a silly argument, because what they really want to say is that we, people of color, have the power to do to them what they have done to us from the 13th century," said Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, professor of sociology at Duke University and author of Racism Without Racists, a book which examines how racism has evolved since the collapse of the Jim Crow era. Silva acknowledged that some minorities are prejudiced against whites, but said reverse racism implies minorities in the U.S. have the power and privilege to wholly discriminate against white people.
"The idea of reverse racism or reverse discrimination is non-sensical," Silva said. "If that by whites believe that we, people of color, have the power to enact and carry systematic policies against them -- because we don't have that."
"We do not control the economy," Silva added, "we do not control politics -- despite the election of Obama. We don't control much of this country."
The notion that racism is commingled with power was borne in part out of African-Americans defining the context of the national discussion on race following the collapse of the Jim Crow system and the end of the civil rights movement, according to Samuel Richards, senior sociology lecturer at the Pennsylvania State University. Political correctness and white guilt are also factors, Richards said. Richards, co-director of the "World in Conversation" at Penn State, which facilitates discussions on race between students across the university, said many Americans now believe if one race has power and privilege in society, they can be racist, but it's something else if you lack those things and still believe in the superiority of your race over another.
"Truthfully," Richards said, "they bought into that perspective." And although generally, it's conservative whites who use the term "reverse racism," "those same white people are accepting the debate--the assumption that only white people can be racist, or you wouldn't call it reverse," Richards said. "You'd call it racism."
The phrase "reverse racism" has been in the public lexicon since at least when the first pointed attacks on affirmative action as being discriminatory to whites began, said William A. Darity Jr. Ph.D, professor of Public Policy, African and African-American Studies and Economics at Duke.
"The folks who were constructing the critique of affirmative action definitely wanted to deliver the message that whites were being unfairly penalized by affirmative action," Darity said. "One way to do that is to inaugurate the concept of reverse racism."
And while Darity said it was not clear whether "reverse racism" was being used more frequently today than in years past, he said some in the U.S. believe the country is now a post-racial society -- epitomized by President Obama's election -- yet blacks still cling to race issues, and that the only real racists left are African-Americans.
Darity and Silva said President Obama has had to govern his administration with reverse racism in mind. Silva said that's one of the reasons why the White House and the NAACP were quick to originally distance themselves from Sherrod.
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