Can white people in the USA be victims of racism?

White men are most racially sidelined group in society

Question: Can white people in the USA be victims of racism?
Position‹2 of 2: Yes, white people can be victims of racism
Argument‹2 of 8›: White men are most racially sidelined group in society

White men are subject to overt - and socially acceptable - racism all the time. White male identity is increasingly seen through a single demonising lens that associates them with guilt, oppression, violence and ignorance. This has come about thanks to a number of colliding factors including initiatives to redress unbalanced gender and racial representation across industry, in the media, and in the workplace. Proponents of this view include Scottish Herald columnist Stuart Waiton and the American alt right.

The argument

Racism may be understood as discrimination against a certain group of people based on their race, with the underlying belief that one’s own race is superior. This understanding suggests that any individual of any race can experience racism. That said, white people can be victims of racism if non-white individuals show prejudice towards them due to their colour. Mitch Berbrier carried out a study on white supremacist media appearances and publications, in which the supremacist groups assert that they are victims of racial profiling and discrimination. The study also demonstrated that alt-right groups believe that their rights are being challenged, such as the freedom to create their own publications and groups and openly express their views. To state that white men are racially sidelined in society is to suggest that they are overlooked and not privy to certain privileges that are afforded to other races. One way in which the aforementioned manifests is through affirmative action. Affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination, can be understood favouring certain groups, such as ethnic minorities, that have been discriminated against. Favouring non-white races can simultaneously be interpreted as the disapproval and neglect of white people. What’s more, Tufts University carried out a study into white and Black American attitudes towards racism. The results demonstrated that white Americans believed that racism against whites has increased since racism against other races, such as Blacks, has decreased. 11% of the white participants claimed that anti-white bias was high. White Americans are recognizing that racial equality is a zero-sum game. Because of this, progress in racial equality for other races negatively affects their lives.

Premises

[P1]Racism is discrimination against people based on race grounded in beliefs of racial superiority, a definition that applies regardless of the target's race. [P2] White people in the USA report and experience prejudice and discrimination, including through mechanisms like affirmative action that favor non-white groups at their expense. [P3] Studies show white Americans increasingly perceive anti-white bias as rising, treating racial equality as a zero-sum game in which gains for other groups come at their cost. [C] Therefore, white people — and white men in particular — can be victims of racism and are racially sidelined in contemporary American society.

Counter-arguments

The crucial issue with this argument is that it overlooks the fundamental role of power structures in facilitating racism, which exists within a hierarchical structure. Historically in the West, white people have rested on the top of this structure given Eurocentric beliefs that privilege whites. That said, it is indeed possible for white people to suffer racial prejudice, such as assumptions and stereotypes about them. However, this cannot be equated to racism, as the prejudice having an effect on the socio-economic standing and privileges of white people is missing. Given that whites generally hold power, due to the aforementioned influence of Eurocentric beliefs and structures, white people cannot be feasibly sidelined. Even affirmative action has to be facilitated by those who are generally in positions of power and influence, i.e white people.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The definition offered is one of several in use. On the account the counter-argument relies on, racism is not prejudice alone but prejudice operating through structures that distribute resources, protection and opportunity; on that definition, hostility directed at white people is prejudice without the structural component. The argument settles the dispute by selecting a definition rather than defending it. [Rejecting P2] The study of white supremacist media is evidence that those groups make victimhood claims, not that the claims are sound — it examines rhetoric. Affirmative action also fits the premise poorly: it is enacted and administered largely by institutions in which white people hold senior positions, and courts have repeatedly constrained it, which is not how a mechanism of systematic exclusion behaves. [Rejecting P3] Perception is what the cited research measures. That white Americans increasingly report anti-white bias is a finding about belief, and it sits alongside aggregate measures — income, wealth, hiring callbacks, incarceration, health outcomes — that continue to run the other way. Reading equality as zero-sum is an attitude the survey records, not a fact it establishes.