(@ShanniiWrites should make a blog post on this. Just saying! )
This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves ever. I’ve seen this on Twitter and Instagram before people saying “Black people can’t be racist”.
As a fellow (half) black person, I would like to point out that this statement racist in itself. It’s just plain wrong. I’ve seen so many black people be racist.
Why can black people be racist? Let’s unpack.
Definition of racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized
The worlds “typically” are slanted, because racism usually affects minorities/POC, but that doesn’t mean always. White people can be victims of racism. Black people can be racist towards white people, or people of other race, or even towards their own race. (if you’ve ever watched Doctor Phil)
Thus, this is a dumb statement which paints the sender as a racist. In short, don’t say any race can’t be racist/victims of racism or you yourself will be assumed as a racist. All races can be racist. All races can be victims of racism. Racism isn’t specific to any race.
I think when people say that black people can’t be racist they mean that white people’s racism towards black people will never be measured by a black person’s racism towards a person of a diferent race.(im white so my opinion is really not valid on this)
I think the better way to put what people say when they claim that black people cant be racist is that black peoples racism isn’t going to have the same institutional effects as white peoples racism
What irks me the most about this is that even if they were like “white people have too much power to experience racism”, which is wrong, they ignore the whole inter-minority racism. Like, if a black American started saying prejudiced things about native Americans, would that not be racism?
Black people are not responsible for institutional racism, but they can do individual racist things
Saying a certain race can’t be racist is a racist statement in and of itself because it assumes a group of people can’t behave a certain way because of their skin color
)