If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you’ve probably seen the firestorm. Someone claims a joke about "white people food" is racist. Someone else fires back that "reverse racism" doesn't exist. It’s a mess. Most of these arguments fail because people are using the same word to mean two completely different things. Honestly, it’s frustrating. When scholars and activists say why you can’t be racist against white people, they aren't saying that white people can't be treated poorly or called names. They’re talking about how power actually functions in the real world.
Let's get into the weeds.
The Vocabulary Trap
Most people grew up learning that racism is just "hating someone because of their skin color." Under that definition, anyone can be racist. If a Black person yells a slur at a white person, the dictionary says that’s racism. But in sociology and ethnic studies, that definition is considered way too shallow. It ignores history. It ignores the law. It ignores who owns the banks and the government.
Sociologists like Patricia Hill Collins or the late bell hooks have spent decades explaining that racism is a system, not just a feeling. It’s prejudice plus power. Think about it this way: anyone can have a prejudice. Anyone can be biased. You can find a person of any race who has a nasty opinion about another group. But that bias only becomes "racism" in a sociopolitical sense when it has the backing of a system to enforce it.
Why Reverse Racism Is a Myth
You’ll hear the term "reverse racism" thrown around a lot in comment sections. It’s a bit of a phantom. For "reverse racism" to be a real, systemic threat, there would need to be a history of white people being enslaved, legally segregated, denied bank loans, and kept out of political power by a dominant non-white group. That hasn't happened in Western society.
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In the United States, white people hold the vast majority of the wealth. According to Federal Reserve data, the median wealth of a white household is roughly $285,000, while for Black households, it’s closer to $44,900. That’s a massive gap. It’s not an accident. It’s the result of decades of policy—from the GI Bill to redlining—that intentionally built white wealth while excluding others.
When people explain why you can't be racist against white people, they are pointing to this lopsided reality. A white person might experience "racial prejudice" or "discrimination" in a specific, isolated moment. A boss might be mean to them because they’re white. That’s bad. It’s hurtful. But it isn't part of a global, centuries-old system designed to keep white people at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Prejudice vs. Systemic Racism
Let’s talk about "prejudice." It’s basically having a pre-judgment about someone. Everyone has it. It’s part of the human brain's weird way of categorizing things. If a person of color is prejudiced against a white person, it’s personal.
Systemic racism is different. It’s the "smog" we all breathe, as Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum famously put it. It shows up in healthcare. Studies have shown that Black patients are often prescribed less pain medication than white patients for the same injuries because of lingering, false beliefs about biological differences. It shows up in the judicial system, where people of color often receive harsher sentences than white people for the same crimes.
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White people don't face these systemic hurdles. There is no "school-to-prison pipeline" for white kids. There isn't a "glass ceiling" that keeps white men out of the C-suite. In fact, white men make up about 30% of the U.S. population but hold the vast majority of Fortune 500 CEO positions.
The Role of History
You can't just ignore the last 400 years. History isn't just in the past; it’s baked into our current laws and neighborhoods. When people say why you can't be racist against white people, they’re acknowledging that the "race" of whiteness was actually invented to justify power.
Back in the 17th century, poor Europeans and enslaved Africans in the American colonies often rebelled together. To stop this, the elite class created legal distinctions. They gave poor whites just enough privilege—the right to own land, the right to carry a gun—to make sure they wouldn't team up with Black people again. This "psychological wage" of whiteness, as W.E.B. Du Bois called it, is the foundation of the system we live in today.
Dealing With the "It's Not Fair" Argument
It’s totally normal for a white person to feel defensive when they hear they can't be a victim of racism. It feels like a double standard. "Why can they say that about me, but I can't say it about them?"
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The answer is about the "punching up" vs. "punching down" dynamic. When a marginalized group makes a joke about white people, it’s often a coping mechanism—a way to vent about the people who hold the power. When the dominant group makes a joke about a marginalized group, it reinforces the status quo that has already been hurting that group for centuries. It’s not the same. It never has been.
Real-World Nuance
Does this mean white people never suffer? Of course not. Classism is real. Misogyny is real. Ableism is real. A white man living in poverty in Appalachia is struggling. He’s being failed by the system. But he isn't being failed because he is white. He is being failed because he is poor. His race is actually the one thing that isn't working against him in that struggle.
Understanding why you can't be racist against white people requires us to be okay with complexity. It’s about looking at the big picture rather than just individual interactions.
Moving Beyond the Argument
If we want to actually fix things, we have to stop getting stuck on the semantics of who can be "racist." Instead, we should focus on equity.
- Educate yourself on systemic issues. Read books like The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein to see how the government literally built segregated cities. It wasn't just "people wanting to live with their own kind."
- Listen without defensiveness. When someone talks about systemic racism, don't take it as a personal attack on your character. They are talking about a machine that was built long before you were born.
- Analyze power dynamics. In any given situation—at work, in school, in politics—ask yourself: who has the power here? Who is the system working for?
- Support policy changes. Real change doesn't happen through being "nice." It happens through changing laws regarding housing, education funding, and criminal justice reform.
The goal isn't to win a debate about a word. The goal is to dismantle a system that hurts people. Once you see the difference between a mean comment and a systemic boot on the neck, the whole conversation changes.