I have a friend who is convinced that whites can never be discriminated against in terms of racism, because she believes it has to be institutionalized.
I come from a town where whites are a minority, so I often see whites “picked on” for their color, so to say. While I believe racism is bad, I also believe that any race is vulnerable to racism, and whenever there is a minority. I don’t believe racism is limited to a society (while the power of a society on effecting an individual can be part of it), because individuals are responsible for their own prejudices and actions.
What do you think? Can whites, despite the history of the world, or anyone for that matter be discriminated against? How do you define racism?
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Racism comes in many forms besides systemic. And I feel that any group can be discriminated against or pre-judged. I’ve heard the term “reverse racism” to describe racism against a dominant group (usually white), but my personal feeling is racism = stereotypes, mistreatments, etc. regardless of their background.
I have certainly witnessed racism against whites. Where I live it’s about 50/50 white/aboriginal and there are definitely aboriginals who believe that all whites are evil and oppressive. While I understand that may have been their experience and we certainly can’t deny that white people did serious damage to aboriginal cultures in North America, it doesn’t mean that every white person is committed to continuing colonization or supporting laws, policies, etc. that maintain their oppression.