Essay About Reverse Racism

In a more straightforward description, reverse racism is the unequal treatment that people of the majority groups face as a result of privileged dogmas. For example, the minority groups may get employed or admitted in colleges as a mechanism of remedying earlier unfair treatment they faced. On the other hand, affirmative action is concerned with a practice that favors certain people especially those in groups that had previously been affected by discrimination. Reverse racism from affirmative action describes a phenomenon that arises when majority groups such as whites suffering racism as a consequence of favoring the minority groups that were discriminated earlier on. The whites get hurt by the affirmative action programs in the fields of education and labor force that see the less qualified people of color get hired or admitted over the more qualified whites.
In contemporary society, reverse racism is real. Research carried out in Australia, and the national survey indicated that 10% of the respondents had been a victim of racism. The study intended to study how bystanders responded to instances of discrimination and for those who had witnessed such an event, they were questioned regarding what happened and what their response was. The respondents indicated that in such an incident, a white Australian was affected (Nelson et al. 340). Notably, the white Australians consider themselves as a racially disadvantaged group while others view the indigenous Australians and asylum seekers as receivers of bigoted privileges. From the study carried out in Australia, witnesses of reverse racism said that the perpetrators were aboriginal. The survey recorded accounts of exchanges between an indigenous and a non-aboriginal person with physical expression and rude assertiveness being exhibited (Nelson, 352).

Focusing on the Reagan/ Thatcher era back in the 1980s, the subject of race policies both in the United States and the United Kingdom was a problem that both denied the actuality of any operational or recognized grounds of discrimination. In this case, halting or reversal of the policies would affect the quality outcome. While the republic party focused on cashing in its long-evolving public image in regards to racial conservatism, President Reagan focused on endorsing white small town home truths which disaffected white democratic voters (Hewitt, 10). In spite of the political prospect that had been provided to the Democrats during the recession of 1981 to 1982, the white southern vote increased steadily towards the republican. However, the white working-class voters in the north also made a significant contribution to the growth of the Republican base in returning Reagan. The moment was vital in the political mobilization of the white criticism to the parity effort, multiculturalism in America and to race-based affirmative action.
Reagan’s infusion of racially conservative appointments to the Department of Justice was essential on his assault on equalities specifically in the civil rights division. The division rapidly started stimulating the general bases of affirmative action in hiring practices. The Reagan justice department also enacted suits that declared affirmative action agreements in Detroit, New Orleans, and Boston top constitute illegal reverse discrimination (Hewitt, 10)

Another instance that reverse racism is evident was in 2011. At the time, more than 20,000 blacks filed charges of race-connected employment discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in comparison to the complaints that had been filed by almost 5,000 whites (Gallagher, Charles & Cameron, 1063). In 2003, Eduardo Bonilla Silva published a book that analyzed the paradox of the changing racial perceptions that reflected greater acceptance of the minority groups and racial inequality. To Silva, the whites who are at the top of the racial hierarchy made racial views that supported the power structure to favor themselves (Gallagher, Charles & Cameron, 1021). Silva went ahead to argue that color-blind discrimination entails four keyframes that include abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism and minimization of racism. In this case, the majority groups use abstract notions of equality in terms of employment opportunities and individualism to make them appear moral. To Bonilla Silva, affirmative action should be prohibited given the fact that every person requires a fair chance at becoming employed. In regards to cultural racism, culture is the root cause of the issue with the blacks arguing that they do not get good jobs due to the perception that they are not hard working and that their preference is to live off welfare. In the case of minimizing racism, the frame gives allowance to the whites to see that some racially motivated acts still take place but that the entire race and racism are no longer the central barricade for people of color. In this case, the explanations given by the whites indicate a combination of the four frames to explain away racial discrimination and inequality without looking like or realizing that they are using racist beliefs.

In light of the above, the prevalence of discrimination especially in colleges negatively affect students of color. Notably, a lot of students feel that most privileges are often favoring white individuals. However, the students agree that racism is inevitable and usually affects the way they behave themselves. As much as all the students benefit from white privilege, the whites in the contemporary world are regarded as racist. Additionally, the white students are more inclined to join student organizations as well as attending campus events that are aimed at minimizing racism.

A while back, it was prohibited in Texas for Spanish-speaking kids to talk in the dialect at school. In this case, the teacher and the school administration was required by law to send the Spanish-speaking child home. On the other hand, after Georgia experienced a massive influx of Mexican immigrants, there was a debate that firefighters would be unable to read signs written in Spanish when looking for the store that was on fire. The county officials in Georgia prohibited naming of stores in other languages other than English. The two examples show that the patterns that were set in history keep recurring. The continuation of such trends proves that it not only affects the on-going pervasive and the system’s discrimination in housing, healthcare, and education but also affects the people of color in less obvious ways.

While the healthcare sector is considered a humanitarian effort, it is worrying that reverse racism still affects the industry. In the United States, the minorities experience health crisis since when they get sick, they succumb at a higher rate due to institutional racism. The minority groups lack access to health care as well as the quality of care that is offered to them. Reverse racism is evident in several ways such as lopsided closure of hospitals that mainly serve the minorities. Similarly, the minority community face exclusion from nursing homes due to Medicaid policies that result in fewer expenses on minorities. As much as minority caregivers have a higher possibility of practicing in minority communities, minorities suffer from under-representation in professions under the health care system. The little determination to offer solutions to the issue/ affirmative action hits rock bottom due to political and legal attacks. Lack of economic access is also another way that discrimination affects minorities since most have no insurance, unlike white people. Most of the people from minority groups are either unemployed or working in jobs that do not offer them healthcare insurance making it difficult for them to access healthcare services.

The racial discrimination is also felt in the courts with a study conducted by Michigan State University College indicating a series of discrimination in North Carolina. Over the past two decades, the state prosecutors have removed double the number of black jurors in some capital cases. In those cases that involve black defendants, the prosecutors eliminated black jurors for being non-black. In the case of Marcus Robinson, half of the black jurors were removed from the case and less than a quarter of the non-blacks. As a result, Robinson as a prisoner filed a lawsuit under the Racial Justice Act and the courts found that race played a significant role during Marcus’s trial. The claim submitted by Marcus Robinson proved that his case faced racial discrimination. The case was unsuccessful since the North Carolina General Assembly annulled the Act making Robinson’s death sentence to become reinstated. In spite of Robinson trying to put up a struggle for the state to recognize the discrimination he faced, the Racial Justice Act still considered his claim unacceptable and unconstitutional.