by Staff writer
The simple answer to this question is yes.
Racism is a system of belief that a person of one race is either superior or inferior to another, therefore anybody can espouse racism, regardless of the color of the person’s skin.
Whether White or Black, anybody that uses racist speech and/or actions that are damaging to others is called a racist.
Those who say Black people cannot be racist often do so on the grounds that white people still enjoy white privilege no matter how underprivileged they may feel.
However, this argument and line of thought is very flawed.
I personally think it’s time we stopped seeing ourselves as just two opposing teams: White and Black, fighting for relevance.
Because in reality we are a bunch of individuals living our own personal realities and dealing with our own personal struggles.
Now imagine a white kid growing up in a black neighborhood, going to school with black kids, and getting repeatedly ostracized and abused throughout his childhood because of the color of his skin, he won’t care if he’s on the “winning” team or not.
He doesn’t care what the grand social scoreboard is. His struggles, experiences and challenges are personal to him and they are not any less valid than the experiences of a black woman getting overlooked for a job because of the color of her skin.
Because of this, anyone claiming to be against racism should view it exclusively as something that individual humans experience on a personal level and everybody’s stories considered valid.
