- 30/08/2017
- Category: Commentaries
Yes, reverse racism is done by minorities to offend majorities so that they could counter racism by being racist towards them. The term reverse racism is a form of denial of the minorities empowered by hatred that is now spread widely in the media called the internet.
The internet, especially social media is an important part of our lives since it promotes the interconnectedness and interdependence of our culturally diverse world.[1] At the same time, it also promotes the culturally diverse hatred in the world and creates a new form of hate culture. In theory, hate is also related to collective negative prejudice, as it can generate irrational emotions and aggressive impulses among groups.[2] Although hate is seen as ‘perceiving others negatively,’ the sense of rightness in the feeling is actually related to that person’s self, which is shaped by their history and personality. From here, they would then exploit their ‘threatened’ identity through racism.[3]
Racism will always be racism, and it is still defined as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race only. This is then used to distinguish a particular race as inferior or superior to other race or races.[4] This results in either common supremacist identity (white supremacicts, etc.) or an identity that is prone to threats and attacks in the digital world. Racism has created this new hate culture in the digital world in the shape of hate speech in posts and even hate comments to counter those posts.
Social networks these days are much more than just social websites; they represent dynamic spaces where every identity is expressed, formed, and shared. Like other digital prospects, the so called ‘hate organisations’ have honed in on this invaluable chance to share their own cultural identities, tastes, and preferences, and, of course, to persuade and ‘preach.’[5] In addition to offering another digital gate into the racist subculture, social networks have accidentally supplied hate movements with something far more valuable than just an information platform; mass. There is no more concentrated category of the Internet than social networking and video-sharing websites which have large mass of people that the ‘hate movements’ strive to desperately inspire.[6]
Hate groups which are “accepted” and “liked” by the people are the main reason why separatist groups could emerge in the society. In 2016, black separatist groups have inclined significantly into the highest number (193) of hate groups in the US.[7] Facebook groups such as Black America, Original People Coming Together, Black Separatist Movement, and other black separatist hate groups have more than 50.000 members in total. Those groups still assume that white supremacy is everywhere and should be countered by creating another power called black supremacy. The black supremacy would actually trigger negative objectives, based on a natural affective disposition of the blacks. This then leads to be the basis of this reverse racism.[8]
Subsequently, black people are using their chance on using reverse racism towards white people by showing white people’s weakness. A tweet by @wyetthasspoken_ has shown us that the attack by black-on-white is a joke and not considered violent by most netizens. The tweet “Racists being hit. A thread.” is followed by nine videos on black people beating white racist people.[9] The comments shown on the tweet mostly support the videos and take that tweet as a joke and a form of “woke” act on the Internet. This in fact explicitly shows a form of violence that is “legalised” by the netizen and accepted as a post that does not contain hate and racism.The impression taken from this phenomenon is that the blacks seem to be aiming at conquering and subjugating the whites; becoming socially, culturally, and juridically on the top. They would want to distort the history of white people and re-write it as a justification for the domination of the blacks over the whites.[10]
It is indeed still debatable that black people could be racist towards white people because there are practically no benefits for them to be racist. But, this kind of hate posts is not (and never) considered in the spectrum of debate of whether it is justifiable for them to be racist. These posts are still hate posts, and they pretty much backlash with the initial purpose of the internet to be the uniting space for everyone to befriend and for cultures and ideas to connect.
[1] Sawyer, Rebecca. (2017). The Impact of New Social Media on Intercultural Adaptation. [online] digital comons. Available at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/242 [Accessed 13 Aug. 2017]
[2] Küçük, S. U. (2016). Brand hate: navigating consumer negativity in the digital world. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, p.6
[3] Opotow, S. (2005). Hate, conflict, and moral exclusion. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),
The psychology of hate (pp. 121–153). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
[4] Mikala, Everett. (2016). Response to “Black people cannot be racist, and here’s why”. [online] The University Star. Available at: https://star.txstate.edu/2016/10/25/response-to-black-people-cannot-be-racist-and-heres-why/ [Accessed 13 Aug. 2017]
[5] Klein, Adam. (2017). Fanaticism, Racism, and Rage Online. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.35-36
[6] Ibid
[7] Struyk, Ryan. (2017). By the numbers: 7 charts that explain hate groups in the United States. [online] CNN. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/politics/charts-explain-us-hate-groups/index.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2017]
[8] Aberger, Peter. (1988) Leopold Senghor and the Issue of Reverse Racism. Phylon, vol. 41, no. 3, 1980, pp. 276–283. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/274791.
[9] wyetthasspoken_. (2017, August 12). Racists being hit. A thread. [Tweet]. https://twitter.com/wyetthasspoken_/status/896397932630597632
[10] Dladla, Nduminso. (2017). Blacks Could Be Racist: A Note on Historical Power. [online] Huffington Post Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/ndumiso-dladla/blacks-could-be-racist-a-note-on-historical-power_a_22022517/ [Accessed 13 Aug. 2017]
Heading picture is taken from: pexels.com
