Vanessa+L’s+2018+OpEd+Article

"Reverse racism is not real!" Racism is a horrid, putrid topic that has clouded “our” nation, but “our” is a strong word. “Our” implies that this nation belongs to all of us, and yet ironically, racism divides us. According to the [|dictionary], racism is described as, “ prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that [their] own race is superior. ” Racism has separated those with more melanin in their skin from those who don't have as much. People of color, people like me, have experienced this racism for generations. I can tell scores of stories related to racism in my family alone; my mother being affected by racial profiling, my grandparents being punished for speaking Spanish at school, my grandmother being forced to sit in the back of the movie theatre, or in the 1970’s, my uncle being denied service at a restaurant. Just last week I went to a consultation and the doctor assumed two things; that I spoke Spanish and that my mother was an immigrant. With that being said, one topic that has bothered me is the belief that reverse racism is real. Reverse racism is the belief that the issue of affirmative action and other programs are considered “anti-white racism.” People wrongly claim that racism can negatively affect all people. According to a 2012 survey done by the [|PRRI], 58% of white millennials feel that discrimination affects all people, while the number is 39% for Hispanics and 24% for African Americans. Reverse racism is a myth.

Racism is when a group discriminates based on having a perceived advantage over the other. P eople of color can’t be racist by that definition. Racism comes by having power and sense of superiority over another group. One race isn’t better than the other, but one group however, has held a type of power. Forty three out of forty five presidents have been white. In Congress, there are 535 members, but only [|102 members] are people of color. People of color have never “reigned” over other groups of people in our country. We have never ”prevailed” or been the majority. According to the United States census, 76.9% of people are white as of July 2016. This is why the majority of elected officials in government are white. This country is ran by descendants from Europe. People of color have never had a majority voice, or “superiority” - how are they able use that force against other people?

Many people also claim that reverse racism controls affirmative action. [|Affirmative action] is “ an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education ”. Some white people blame their college rejection letters on this. “Brown people are getting into better colleges and receiving scholarships because they’re not white!!!” Colleges still work and accept based on merit. I won’t get a scholarship or a position merely because I’m a Mexican woman. I will receive it because I earned it with my talent and effort. Affirmative action isn't giving people of color a higher advantage over white people. If anything, it brings fairness and equal opportunity to the two groups. People of color were hidden in the back for many, many years. Integration in public schools didn’t happen until 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education declared segregation illegal. Though it’s supposed to balance groups of people, it still isn't perfect. According to [|FinAid] in 2008, white people received 65.2% of the private scholarships, while all other races received 34.8%. A study done by [|The National Bureau of Economic Research] concluded that people with a “white sounding name” are still 50% more likely to receive a callback from a job than someone with an “African-American name.” To my knowledge, I don’t remember a time when “all men are created equal.”

I’m not denying discrimination towards white people. It is discrimination if someone chooses not to include someone else because they’re white, but it is not racism. Racism and prejudices are not interchangeable [|words]. In the [|“context of American history, white people have not been enslaved, colonized, or forced to segregate on the scale that”] people of color have. People of color have never held the power to be in a position to be racist against white people. Yet, I am not erasing white people’s struggles. Their experiences are different. They were never told to sit in the back of a movie theatre, they have never been pulled over because they were the same ethnicity as a fugitive that was on the run, they have never been declined service in 1970’s Texas. My family has.

~My family; who have all been affected by racism. (My grandmother is at far left and my great-grandparents are the center front.) Though this family has been here since the 1920's, it is still not considered "our" nation. ~

~A semi-updated photo, I have heard countless stories from these individuals and their encounters with racism.~