"Reverse Racism"..?

Is reverse racism taking over the youth?

Every day, I hear "Oh! It's because I'm black, isn't it?" Some are joking, some aren't. When I get the response, "are you racist?" because I don't let a girl who doesn't deserve to pass the class unless she does the work herself cheat off my paper, I can only shake my head in disbelief.

I walk around with the following pins on my purse:



I am a very proud advocate for equal rights and racial justice. I believe in civil liberties. I have grown up with a father who idolized the KKK and a family who's truth-in-jest humor suggests something far more sinister than how "there were three mexicans crossing the border, then one says..."

I hate racism. I despise it. I loath it. All my life, I have grown up around blacks, mexicans, asians. I love them, I love diversity (there was actually a time in my life when I was around 12 where I was convinced I was black. :wink: ). That is why it makes me sick that I can not make a comment (one I would say to a white, black, or purple person) without getting a rebuttal so sharp it slices right through me.

It's split nearly 50/50 in my school. 50% black kids, 50% white kids. But there is a tension among our halls that grows and grows with each day. Rarely have I witnessed a verbal hate-crime towards a black person. I have, however, witnessed many more against whites. But somehow it is acceptable, because if we refuse this "compensation" to African-Americans we are racist pigs who are trying to bring 'em down.

Kill Whitey! Oh yeah, it's common today. I am all for bringing down racists - but when I think of racists, I no longer think of redneck white trash with the swastika hanging off the back of their trailer. I have come to see racism in the faces of the black students that I walk with in the halls. I see it when I refuse to do something for someone and am accused of being racist, I see it when someone doesn't get what they want and blame it on their skin color.

Since when has the suffering of one's ancestors made for a good excuse for modern-day naivety?

I do realize that white men put Africans into the position of slavery. But I also know that we got them out.

I am tired of this arrogance, this egotistical rule that allows black students at my school to degrade me and the essence of life - having ups and downs and sometimes being handed a pile of **** - merely because their ancestors and parents (and I admit, some of them today) experienced racism and prejudice.

I feel as if the civil battle, one that I fight for right next to the black man, is being pushed backwards - not only by the skinheads and the white supremacists, but the hip-hoppers and the gangsters who feel the need to differentiate themselves to the point that we can't possibly get in. And when we do attempt to...we are shunned. If I were to go up to a black student and say to them, "listen to me...you and I? We're are equal. I am the same as you, you the same as me. I want to apologize for the horrors my ancestors put your ancestors through, and I want to build a friendship upon our differences and history," do you know what their reaction would be? Most likely, they would burst out in laughter and make a racially-inclined joke. I can only assume based on the comments I have previously over-heard.

I guess my main point of this post is to ask why this is such a silent, hidden problem?

It feels as if we (we = anyone, including black people, who are against this digressive mindset, not only white people) are not allowed to say something to the effect of:

The majority of black people I know use their race to their advantage and, while I know racism is alive and kicking and I see that many are still victims of this hatred, I am beginning to see an additional sect of racial prejudice - reverse racism. I am not allowed to say the same things to a black person that I would to a white person, because they would be offended. I am not welcomed into their culture because they push themselves so far away from me and my skin color, that it is impossible to become equal. I am not able to insult someone's intelligence based on the standard of humanity without being accused of believing in something I despise: RACISM.

I know others feel the same...it's a daily topic among my friends and myself. There are black people who feel this way, there are white people, there is every color under the sun. Yet no one has the gull to speak up, because they are afraid of the reaction.

I feel as if I am trapped. Ignorance erks me, no matter who or what it spawns from. I ask myself every day, why is this allowed to continue? Why does no one speak up? And most of all, why do they act oblivious to what they're doing to their progression? Is it just me? AM I racist? AM I biased? Or are the hundreds of students who feel frightened, shunned, and helpless, merely because they can not welcome an African-American into their world without being considered crazy, really onto something...