Black Racism and White Racism Are Not Created Equal
No White people were harmed in the making of this article.
They’ve become so predictable and, frankly, almost amusing. Every time I write an article about race, I’m prepared for the commenters who, like clockwork, will accuse me of being racist. “You can’t fight racism with racism,” one of them recently Whitesplained, as if chiding Black people for writing about it was her doing her part.
Here’s the thing: If you are fed up with reading articles critical of White people written by Black people like me, you can hurl the R-word at us if you think that can wipe your conscience clean. Black people, however, don’t flinch at being called “racist” the way White people do. We’re too busy fighting off the far more malignant N-word (the last word countless Black Americans ever heard as they were lynched by White mobs) and the type of racism that can actually lead to loss of life to care whether someone thinks we are racist.
For the record, I am not. Writing about my experiences as a Black man in the United States and how White Americans in general have been the architects of the oppression of Black Americans and how some continue to perpetuate it doesn’t make me racist. It makes me a realist. I’m hard on White people because as a race, they’ve gotten away with murder for generations. I don’t think all White people are evil. My White husband and my White best friend, neither of whom have ever been offended by a word I’ve written about race, might have a problem with that.
It also does not mean I think White people are inferior to Black people. I do hold White Americans responsible for setting the tone of oppression in this country. That’s the reality in which we live, even though some people don’t want to face it. If that makes me racist to them, I can live with that. Regardless of how we define “racist” — as something unique to White people or as a condition that can apply to anyone — one aspect of racism remains unequivocal: It is never quite so dangerous as when it has power to back it up. If you don’t agree, there are plenty of images and, more recently, increasing video evidence to back me up.
