What is 'reverse racism' – and what's wrong with the term?

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“Reverse racism” claims have surfaced in the current debate around the Voice to Parliament referendum.

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Provider: 
The ConversationThe Conversation
URL: 
https://theconversation.com/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term-208009https://theconversation.com/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term-208009
Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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Tags: 
Prejudice, Democracy, Senate, Awareness, Face, PEW, Sky News, Australian, Parliament, Human voice, Man, Indigenous Australians, First Nations, Racism, Silviculture, Whaling, Birth control, Book
Geotags: 
AUSTRALIA, ASIA, AFRICA, NEW ZEALAND, US, MIDDLE EAST
Summary
Key Points: 
  • “Reverse racism” claims have surfaced in the current debate around the Voice to Parliament referendum.
  • “The concept looks racist to me,” wrote Sky News commentator Kel Richards last August.
  • Such views misrepresent the Voice as preferential treatment of First Nations peoples, falsely suggesting it would somehow weaken the political say of non-Indigenous Australians.
  • Put simply, the concept of “reverse racism” – or “anti-white racism” – just doesn’t work, because racism is more than just prejudice.

Why ‘reverse racism’ is a myth

    • Prejudice and discrimination are inherently tied to historically rooted and entrenched, institutionalised forms of systemic racism and racial hierarchies, injustices and power imbalance.
    • Read more:
      Explainer: what is systemic racism and institutional racism?
    • They may be discriminated against: for example, by an ethnic business owner who prefers to employ someone from their community background.

How common are reverse racism claims?

    • A more recent US survey, in 2022, concluded that 30% of white respondents saw “a lot more discrimination against white Americans”.
    • But there is evidence a significant minority of Australians seem convinced anti-white racism is a thing.
    • A 2018 Australian survey found that around 10% of respondents who stated they had witnessed racism as bystanders said the victim of the allegedly “racist” incident was a white person.
    • Actually, that’s reverse racism!” But as he has argued, “To be called racist for identifying actual racist behaviours and rhetoric is not OK.”

      Read more:
      How believers in 'white genocide' are spreading their hate-filled message in Australia

Backlash against racial justice

    • “Reverse racism” sometimes reflects a naïve but profound lack of racial literacy.
    • But more often, it’s a defensive backlash against societal reckoning with racial injustices, both past and present.
    • And it’s often an expression of “white fragility” in the face of an increasing awareness of racism in Australia – as epitomised by Hanson’s political career.
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