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Chris Burgess

Wanted to get others feedback on researching where and why "Reverse Racism" started

I was curious if What if? readers know where the term "Reverse Racism" came from and do you think it dilutes or lessens the how impactful racism is in our society? Why would you say "Reverse Racism" when you don't call an individual a "reverse racist"...I hope this forum gives me other open minded view points which will help me with my own perceptions/framework.

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I have wondered about this topic before. I don't know where this concept of "reverse racism" started, but I believe that affirmative action brought about resentment from many members of the majority. The fact that, as perceived, the minority of people were receiving benefits that the majority felt were rightfully theirs, caused them to feel like their liberties were being taken away from them. The majority took this as racism because they felt that they could not receive the same "perceived" benefits of minorities based on their ethnicity. However, this "perceived" racism was misguided. The minority, at least statistically, has alway underperformed the majority in many of the areas that Majority felt were being taken away from them, even with "perceived"benefits of affirmative action in place.

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Bennie,

Thank you so much for your insight and honest response. Your answer makes sense for the reason the term was created. I definately had a different "lens" in that my feeling is racism happens among the majority and the minority and in order to bring about change in judging people by "the content of their character rather than the color of their skin" (or for that matter orientation, religion, etc.) in my opinion we all need to be "change agents" especially when we are in our comfort zone (family, close friends, church, etc.) so that when someone does say something racist or ignorant we are letting them know that behavior is unacceptable.

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Agreed, I have a saying, " Change begins with my efforts to create it," and I sand by that especially on issues of racism and discrimination.

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To add to what Bennie said, I also think it is the belief that whites are experincing discriminatory actions by non-white individuals and/or groups based upon the fact that they are white. In reality, there is no such thing as reverse racism. Racism is racism! The lifelong experience of non-white skinned peopled and the overt and covert discrimination cannot be experienced in the true sense of racial discrimination as we know it. If you look at who the people in "power," there aren't too many non-white individuals (or females for the record).

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An interesting topic that goes along with this ....

Whites will be a minority by 2042 according to some reports. 2050 by other reports. They are already a minority in 10% of the counties in the US.

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