Affirmative Action and Reverse Racism
Affirmative Action is the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who suffer from discrimination within a culture. Affirmative action does not create reverse racism, because reverse racism does not exist. Racism is institutionalized oppression; it is a social construct. Prejudice, discrimination, and racism are all intertwined but still specific to their own ideas. Prejudice is a belief or feeling. It’s a feeling of dislike for a person or group of people, that is sometimes based on a stereotype. Being prejudiced is normal, as long as one never acts on their irrational dislike. Discrimination happens the moment one decides to act on their prejudices. However, racism encompasses patterns of discrimination throughout an entire culture, and institutionalize them as normal. If reverse racism were to exist, it would have to mean that those arguing about reverse racism, white people, were being denied their rights, when in reality they're simply being denied their privilege. Racism is a systematic construct that deprives minorities certain rights. Reverse racism cannot and does not exist because the social construct in which we live in, does not allow for white people to be deprived of their rights.
For example, if a black man looking to hire denies a white man the position because of the color of his skin, that’s not reverse racism. That’s simply discrimination. It cannot be racism, or reversed racism, because in today's society, white people are not deprived their rights based on their skin color, whereas minorities are. Minorities can discriminate against white people, but it will never be reverse racism because society has never oppressed white people, nor have discriminations against white people become part of the social construct.
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