Can white people in the USA be victims of racism?

Affirmative action is anti-white racism in action

Question: Can white people in the USA be victims of racism?
Position‹2 of 2: Yes, white people can be victims of racism
Argument‹6 of 8›: Affirmative action is anti-white racism in action

Affirmative action - a system that favours non-whites across College admissions, company boards, "diversity" initiatives and many more facets of public life - is blatantly racist. It is a type of reverse racism that has no place in our society. Of course, we should acknowledge historical wrongs. But, there is no justifiable basis to move on from discrimination by introducing a new form, in which another racial group (whites) face prejudice. For example, it is absurd that young people today, who have grown up into a society that recognises racism and actively works to dismantle prejudice, are having opportunities made unavailable to them by virtue of their skin colour.

The argument

Affirmative Action is a set of procedures meant to end illegal discrimination, prevent future discrimination, and remedy the effects of prior discrimination. However, this is done by benefiting minorities, and putting non-minorities at a disadvantage. Affirmative action is applied on a scale to be relative to how disadvantaged a group was or is. The weaker end of said scale discriminates weakly against so-called new minorities, mainly young white males, and the stronger end of the spectrum, discriminates strongly.

Premises

[P1]Affirmative action grants preferences to minority groups while placing non-minorities at a corresponding disadvantage. [P2] Systematically disadvantaging individuals on the basis of race—including young white males—constitutes racial discrimination against them. [C] Therefore, affirmative action shows that white people in the USA can be victims of racism.

Counter-arguments

Affirmative Action can not be racist against white people. While White people may not be the direct beneficiaries of Affirmative Action programs, this is because they do not need to be. The reason we need Affirmative action in the first place is to allow equal opportunity to everyone. White people do not need to benefit from special programs to have an equal opportunity relative to people of color, because they are the majority in both population and leadership positions therefore are not discriminated against.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The zero-sum framing is assumed. Where selection is from a fixed number of places, any consideration of any factor disadvantages someone relative to a counterfactual, and the premise treats an unsuccessful applicant's position as a deliberate imposition rather than an effect of scarcity. [Rejecting P2] The premise adopts one contested definition of racism — differential treatment by race — and rules the alternative out by stipulation. Critics hold that racism involves systematic subordination, on which measures intended to counteract an existing disadvantage differ in kind from those that create one; that is a disagreement to be argued, not settled by definition. [Rejecting C] The conclusion also rests on a description of the policy that the courts have rejected. Quotas have been unlawful in the United States for decades, and the schemes that operated lawfully treated race as one factor among many — not the sliding scale of penalties the argument describes.