Reverse-Racism Analysis

For me, there is a connection between classism and racism. Perhaps I am perpetuating an “-ism” with this assumption. However, I feel as if I have been perceived to be of a certain socio-economic class due to my ethnicity. I come from a Caucasian family that has been in the United States for several generations and we do not have many ties to our European ancestry. Because I am white, people have assumed that I grew up wealthy or at least middle-class. I did not. Nevertheless, I will admit that I find myself struggling with educational elitism. I went directly from high school to a four-year university, and I believed that those who did not go directly to college or went to a community college instead were beneath those of us who did. All

More specifically, the term “reverse-racism” as a term for racism against whites is a sensitive subject for me. Sensoy and DiAngelo (2017) discussed this in chapter 5 of their book. I do not believe there should be separate terms. I grew up in two different communities, both very different from one another, and my race was not the predominant population. I was, in fact, a minority at the elementary school, middle schools (I attended two), and high school I attended. People look at me with my blonde hair and blue eyes, and they make assumptions and stereotypes. During high school I was frequently called an oxymoron, because I was a “smart

If our race did indeed affect our admission decisions, then how could we complain when race interfered with every aspect of everyone else’s lives? Even more, how could we say someone got into a university because of their race (not being white), without seeming like we are being racist? Or should I say without discriminating, as Sensoy and DiAngelo (2017)described racism to be part of the system, while discrimination is acting on