This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

People who say white people can't experience racism are racist.

Let this sink in,

People who say "you can't oppress the oppressors" are generalising all white people as oppressors. SOME may be oppressors, but not every white person is.

Statements like that are just as bad as saying that all x race are ys , i.e all black people are criminals WHICH IS NOT TRUE . And although I am usually open minded, if you disagree with anything which I've just said , then I would say you are a racist.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Also there are huge double standards, if I get called "White boy" then its fine, if I call someone "black boy" or "brown boy" then I am a patronising racist and would get beaten up.

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

Also there are huge double standards, if I get called "White boy" then its fine, if I call someone "black boy" or "brown boy" then I am a patronising racist and would get beaten up.

Because historically, being called black boy or brown boy would be followed by a beating, or a lynching or other racial slurs. It’s not the same. Stop with the oppression Olympics.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

White people can be discriminated against individually. Not systematically the same way that ethic minorities are. Idk why SOME white people are so desperate to be oppressed. I’m half white English, btw.

What do you mean, 'individually'. Picking out someones skin colour and ridiculing them for it is an attack of race, not an attack of the individual.

Reply 4

J Zonda

yes there's tribal mentality in every race. Everyone has some sort of in-group bias. When you join allegiances with someone who has similar interests and ridicule people who don't agree with you it's the same primitive behaviour that drives racism.

Reply 5

Nobody7

Racism happens to everyone, but cause of the situation going on right now I think this is not the right time to post. It seems like you are trying to act as if you are the victim and trying to make it about yourself.

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Because historically, being called black boy or brown boy would be followed by a beating, or a lynching or other racial slurs. It’s not the same. Stop with the oppression Olympics.

Yes, "historically". But that doesn't mean that todays generation of white people should suffer for what ******* ancestors used to do to black people, does it ? That argument is Ince again being taken out of context. You shouldn't call someone black boy for the reason you just described, but that doesn't make it alright to call someone white boy in a racist way.

Reply 7

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

What do you mean, 'individually'. Picking out someones skin colour and ridiculing them for it is an attack of race, not an attack of the individual.

Individual discrimination as in, being mean to a white person based on their skin. Not systematically like they have in America.

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Individual discrimination as in, being mean to a white person based on their skin. Not systematically like they have in America.

Ahh, so basically, the exact same thing but just on a smaller scale, which when EVERYBODY does it, makes it on a large scale.

Reply 9

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

Today’s generation of white people suffer?? I’m talking about the fact that terms such as Black boy or brown boy holds historic trauma. For that reason it is deeper than “white boy” (which is still wrong to say, don’t get me wrong)

Reply 10

londonmyst

Don't forget that people are using a range of definitions for racism and what constitutes racism.
Often to support their preferred ideology or own personal convenience in a specific context/personal scenario.
Defining racism as either: racial preference, racial hatred, racial bias or racial prejudice.
Many also seem to be using the american definition that depends on power not hatred.

Reply 11

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

Ahh, so basically, the exact same thing but just on a smaller scale, which when EVERYBODY does it, makes it on a large scale.

No. Systematic racism as in racist systems. Such as the police force in America. Doesn’t mean EVERYONE is racist.

Reply 12

Anonymous #1

Original post by Nobody7

I am not acting like a victim, I am stating facts. Just because its not as bad as it is to black people doesn't mean it doesn't exist to white people.

Reply 13

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Ok, good. We can both agree on that. Because both are wrong and although it has more historical baggage to say black and brown boy racially, its still wrong to say white people racially.

Reply 14

Nobody7

Original post by Anonymous

I am not acting like a victim, I am stating facts. Just because its not as bad as it is to black people doesn't mean it doesn't exist to white people.

I agree with the fact that it happens to white people, like I said racism happens to everyone. But as you said, it is not as common so people do not take as much notice, but of course that does not make it right. And do not forget in the past, white people basically ruled the world and were racist to everyone.

Reply 15

Anonymous #1

Original post by Nobody7

Dude, but why do people bring it up to the current generation like we are living replicas of them. SOME people are, but not all..

Reply 16

Whitelives

When white girls pretend they are black I think it's trash

Reply 17

jger_rams2019

If you want to know why people say ,"white people can't experience racism", you have to first understand the difference between racism (and other-ism's) and prejudice.

An ism-, such as racism, has to include systemic (within systems like the government or police force for example) and systematic (widespread, very common) hatred and injustices. These are things that are grown over time and develop in a society, or were ingrained when a society was being built that continually disadvantage populations like POC, women, LGBT+ etc. Think of it as a group hate that isn't necessarily carried out by an individual, but occurs frequently enough in a population that it makes life hard.

Prejudice is an individual, pre-made judgement of people and things. So, when someone, perhaps a POC, says that all white people suck and are racist, they are showing prejudice against a group. The significance of this difference is that them saying you suck doesn't cause you to be targeted by police, doesn't cause you to face cyclical poverty, and doesn't extend to your ability to live in this world like an -ism would cause.

So, POC can be prejudice against white people but they cannot be racist towards you. And white people as a group have yet to experience racism in modern Western societies.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 18

Anonymous #3

Firstly, the systematic racism is the oppression of the minority race oppression perpetuated by societal and hierarchical systems in place, run and dominated by the majority race. In the west, white people are the vast majority, which makes people of colour the minority. You simply cannot deny that the minority cannot oppress the vast majority. Not only is that not possible in the theoretical sense, if you look at reality, and the racism that is currently the subject of conversation, oppression of white people is not happening and hasn't happened. That doesn't mean that white people aren't subject to racial verbal abuse, but if you're talking about oppression, the statement you have in quotes is correct. It's true, not all white people are intentionally oppressing people of colour, but the idea is that the racism (oppression), which has been running deep for longer than any one person has been alive, has developed and seeped into every aspect of life to the point that now even the inaction of individuals in the face of oppression and their privilege which stems from such system is an indirect contribution to the oppression, and the aforementioned oppressing systems in place run autonomously.

The issue is that I don't think you have a clear picture of what oppression is or have a grasp of indirect contribution to oppression. e.g. Assuming you're white from the statement you made about being called a 'white boy', you benefit from the privilege of having a lower chance of being stop and searched by police based simply off of assumption. Yet, if you saw this happen to a black person (who is statistically more likely to be subject to this) and you considered there to be a lack of reasonable grounds for the police to carry this search out, and you didn't speak up or at the very least question the nature of the stop and search, that is you benefiting from that privilege and indirectly oppressing. It's unfortunate, because you didn't choose to be privileged, yet you bear a responsibility to those who aren't as privileged due to the system that you benefit from, but that black person who got stopped and searched simply because they are black also didn't choose to be on the opposite end of that privilege.

You could argue that this is a result of a relatively high knife crime rate in statistically more black neighbourhoods, but again, if you think deeper you could perhaps suggest that this is the result of a much higher % of black people in poverty resulting from reduced economic and societal opportunities, which came from increased oppression of people of colour the further back in modern history you look, which led to the development of 'hoods' and thus is a direct, chain-reaction consequence of oppression - if you took this perspective, you could say that racism is just as rampant as it has ever been, it's just modernised. Instead of white people lynching black people, it's black people killing black people as a result of the conditions they were forced into by white people. Being in a position of privilege it's hard to see this, so it would be unjust to blame everyone of it, but it's important to understand the difference between what a white person might experience in western society to what a black person will.

Again, racist abuse against white people is ENTIRELY real, but oppression maybe not. I think the anger response of some white people to the current movement is that the narrative suggests that all white people are directly to blame which might make you feel accused and attacked, which is understandable and should be corrected.

Also, why do you assume that people think it's fine to be called a 'white boy' but not a 'black boy'? I don't think many people would agree with your statement.

Reply 19

Anonymous #4

Anyone can have a personal racial bias. As in, any individual black person, for example, can claim to hate all white people, but this isn't racism, this is a personal bias. The point of racism is that it's systematic. Racism is more than just one person having a belief, it's something that has a history behind it, where people have really suffered. Black people as a group have suffered considerably as a result of white people as a group believing them to be sub-human. White people have never been subjected to systematic, government protected prejudice at the hands of black people, and therefore any kind of insults based on their race is about one person's personal opinion.
It's the same reason that heterophobia isn't a real thing, because straight people have never been oppressed or denied rights by LGBT people. White people can't be subjects of real racism because they have always been the oppressors.