Has the meaning of racism changed?

[MrsPear]

I ask because unfortunately I have always thought H has experienced what we would consider racist comments and behaviour plus so have I for being married to him (from public to potential employers to police) At least I’m now not sure. Why? we are both white. Mixed heritage but white. The message from social media appears to be that racism is white supremacy against people who are black. I certainly do not disagree that white privilege exists but surely that is not the only racism to exist? If I am wrong and we cannot have experienced racism as we are white then can someone please explain what you would call the hostile, nasty stuff that has happened to us? Or should we just grow a pair and accept that some people think that way and there is nowt wrong with it?

I think racism towards white people exists, but it cannot be compared to the institutional racism that exists against people of colour.

Other races can be racially prejudiced towards white people but not racist. For reverse racism to be a “thing” it would require a level playing field and there isn’t one. Racial prejudice may hurt individual white people but black people/POC do not have the power or authority to affect the white person’s social/economic status and privilege.
If a black person/POC called me (a white woman) a ‘stupid white bitch’ it may hurt my feelings but will not do any damage to whiteness as a concept/social capital, or affect my privilege as a white woman. If I were to say the n word or any other racial slurs, my words would be backed up by years and years of structural oppression and would only serve to reinforce the status quo. It’s just not comparable at all.

There is another thread where a white Roma woman is discussing this.

I think Irish and Roma and Jewish people are protected within the HR act as protected characteristics in grounds of race or nationality.

The specific issue targeted as a result of the violent racist killings is about blackness.

That doesn’t mean that other forms of race based discrimination are not racist .

But are you actually white and claiming ‘reverse racism’ ?

The dictionary definition of racism is belief in superiority of a certain race so yes every race can experience racism. Theres no such thing as "reverse racism" because racism by definition is racism. Jews, roma, travellers and other groups can all be whiteand experience racism. Systematic racism is heavily towards white people and against black people or asian people and that needs addressing but pretending white people cannot experience racism is simply not true in any sense of the definition.

Yes white people can experience racism
Many years ago at college me (black) and my friend (white) were told we could not go through a certain area of the dining hall-we needed to to get to the toilets !! Got physically blocked (It was a group of people all of the same race/nationality different To us but they were the majority at the college) we got told we couldn’t walk through because we weren’t meant to be in their area called me n word called my friend white bitch etc

We pushed them aside and walked through. I was terrified but we needed to make that point both of us equally

Of course racism can occur from and to all races. It's so narrow-minded to think only in terms of the US and the UK or Europe. What about racism in other countries? In Singapore, for example, the Chinese majority can often be racist towards the Malay minority. In India, people are sometimes racist towards black African people. Every country seems to have another race or group that they look down on. Some British people are racist towards Eastern Europeans, while Eastern European countries are typically quite anti-immigration from the Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East they treat foreign labourers and domestics like crap, while in the Europe we look down on Middle Eastern countries as less advanced. And so it goes on!

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther KIng

It comes in all forms. I had an Indian boyfriend who he took me to try and introduce me to his family and I overheard his mother say "why have you got involved with that one, you can't marry her, she's white." We stayed together for a while but his parents did their best to break it up and that involved some pretty vitriolic comments to my face about being white. In the end, I couldn't take it any more and he was so worn down by the conflict with his parents he gave in to them

@Asthenia

Other races can be racially prejudiced towards white people but not racist. For reverse racism to be a “thing” it would require a level playing field and there isn’t one. Racial prejudice may hurt individual white people but black people/POC do not have the power or authority to affect the white person’s social/economic status and privilege. If a black person/POC called me (a white woman) a ‘stupid white bitch’ it may hurt my feelings but will not do any damage to whiteness as a concept/social capital, or affect my privilege as a white woman. If I were to say the n word or any other racial slurs, my words would be backed up by years and years of structural oppression and would only serve to reinforce the status quo. It’s just not comparable at all.

Eloquently put, but I would just add that I suspect this is only true in majority white countries (obviously we're implicitly talking about Western countries / societies). In Africa, the reverse is true - at least in my experience - in that individual black people have and do use their positions of authority to make life difficult for white people.

There are two definitions of racism that are widely used

One is the prejudice + power = racism.

This is from sociology

The other is

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group.

One is based around the person the other is based on society and its structures.

And no there is no such thing as reverse racism, just racism.

Thank you FrippEnos that is what I thought.