Reverse Racism?
Positive Descrimination, Affirmative Action, Reverse Racism - What's In A Name?
© Tyson Yunkaporta
Mar 18, 2006
When we explore the logic of "Reverse Racism", we begin to question the word "race" itself. Read about my personal experiences of racism from different ethnic groups.
Politically correct notions of racism are childish and simplistic, and seem to be limited to "white people being mean to black people". This is so widely accepted that if a "coloured" person shows prejudice it is called "reverse racism". Having experienced racism from dark and light-skinned people, I can say with conviction that there is no such thing as reverse racism. Racism is racism, no matter which way you look at it.
Some observant European people identify me on first meeting as Indigenous, but most assume I am an "Anglo Australian." Under this assumption, I have often been told jokingly that I look like I have "a touch of the tar". When I respond that I am indeed Indigenous, the joker usually goes the other way then, to question my Aboriginality. These are the sorts of comments used:
"Some white fellas just want to be black fellas."
"We've probably all got a bit in us."
"Why can't you just be an Australian?"
"He's doing a white man's job, so he's a white man."
To be fair, such thinking is not limited to Anglo people. Similarly problematic comments have been made to me by Indigenous people of various cultural backgrounds, including,
"Look, half-caste boy there walking."
"We're smarter than them, because we got white blood in us, eh?"
"Eh! You walk in here just like you proper blackfella!"
"That's because you're white. We can eat totems in our culture." (On finding out I won't kill or eat my totem.)
So what is the answer? If our current definition of racism is so limited that its name has to be changed depending on the colour of the user's skin, then surely the definition itself is a racist one. So, we need to simplify things by looking at the literal definition. "-isms" are beliefs. "Race" is an outmoded seventeenth century myth of biological difference invented to justify slavery and imperial expansion. So, racism is the belief in the existence of separate human races.
By that rationale most of Western society, whose structures and cultures are built upon the myth of racial groups determined by arbitrary physical characteristics, is a racist society.
Reversed, sideways, upside down - that's just wrong, no matter which way you look at it.
More on reverse racism Here, particularly the links between the concepts of affirmative action, positive descrimination and reverse racism.
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Reverse Racism? in
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Reverse Racism? must be granted by the author in writing.
Comments
Mar 18, 2006 4:55 PM
Allan Shore
:
Thanks for writing from the heart. That is always difficult. It simply takes a lot of courage to that and expose yourself to what others --often times with power over you--might do in return. And I guess that is my problem. Since racism, like any other "ism," is really about power (who has it and how they use it against those who don't have it), racism comes from the dominate group against those who are in a weaker position. While I agree that prejudice goes both ways as can discrimination (when an individual or institution acts on their/its prejudice), taking the issue to the structural level of an "ism" has many different implications and results -- again, with the result that the disempowered group gets systematically hurt. Which means that these folks cannot be "racist" against the dominate group because they cannot reverse the power to hurt those who hurt them. This is why dark-skinned folks always get hurt collectively more so than lighter skinned or white people; why women do less well everywhere in comparison to men; why youth pretty much get the short end of lots of changes to be fairly heard and involved in life; why gay, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, etc. simply get hurt because they do not conform to the expectation of others.
I think you get my point. Anyway, thanks for the writing.
I will be dealing with some of this in the Activism Topic Area in the future.
Allan
Mar 19, 2006 12:52 AM
Tyson Yunkaporta
:
Thanks Allan. I agree with you. The worst part about the "reverse racism" tag is that it is used by dominant cultural people to claim a victim status that is non-existent and morally reprehensible, for all the reasons you've stated. Look forward to seeing how you deal with this in the Activism section.
Regards
Tyson
Jun 28, 2006 6:18 PM
Tyson Yunkaporta
:
i was watching a fly eater bird and his mate yesterday. what a perfect married couple. he is a beautify shining array of black, white and blue. she is a dull grey colour. those two don't seem to have any problem with colour in identifying as the same species of fly eaters. he's not running off to screw some kingfisher who's the "right colour". if birds can work it out, then why the hell can't we?
i know a kanaka man with skin like black anthracite, who is married to a woman with the lightest skin i know. they have had two kids together - one came out dark and the other came out light and blonde. is somebody going to tell me those two brothers have to have separate cultures based on their tonal variation? i'm sick of this crass stupidity.
i've just moved to a new place where i just don't even exist. the local aboriginal land council is asking me for papers to prove my aboriginality - so i'm having to chase these up and i won't get them until the end of the year. so i'm excluded from the aboriginal community here in a really weird native version of apartheid.
i'm working at the local school as a substitue sometimes - it's the only work i can get with an aboriginal name - being an aboriginal man in this country right now is equated with rape and abuse thanks to a big propaganda campaign, so i can't get any full time work at all. the kids at the school yell out their nicknames for me as i walk past - "osama bin laden!" and "sahid" and so forth.
people ask me "are you middle eastern? you're not white, so what are you?" when i say i'm aboriginal, they shake their heads then, and say, "no, you're white. you don't look very aboriginal." they ask me where my name comes from, and when i say it is a wik name from cape york, they go all quiet and the conversation's over.
so i'm not allowed an identity in this place i'm living now. and the weather is as cold as the people.
Jun 28, 2006 6:21 PM
Tyson Yunkaporta
:
my friend mish from mexico
"There are indeed very, very few people in Mexico who would consider themselves black, and very few that look black because most of us have both indigenous and white heritage as well. There is also a lot of racism here and the idea of being black is really looked down upon. If i told someone i was black ehre they'd probably think i was on crack. Sometimes i have trouble getting people to accept that i'm even mexican if they've never been outside their rancho. But gringos don't think i'm a gringa. So i'm in a weird spot..."
