Written by Rihanna Brown
There seems to be a big misunderstanding when it comes to the difference between racism, discrimination & prejudice. People that benefit from systematic oppression are far from being the ones oppressed (i.e white people cannot experience systematic oppression.)
DISCRIMINATION: prejudice + actions that harm those you have prejudice against PREJUDICE: feeling of dislike for a racial/ethnic group + belief in this dislike
RACISM: discrimination + institutionalization of this discrimination, which is then perpetuated in society People that benefit from systematic oppression (ie, white people, straight people, etc) tend to disregard the history of dehumanization, violence, murder, genocide, humiliation, & the violation of human rights that they perpetuated onto not only people of color but women, the neuroatypical community, lgbt+ community, etc.
They disregard the fact that they benefit from this and that it cannot be reversed — there is no such thing as reverse racism/sexism because it is a institutionalized system of oppression, it is not denotative or isolated incidents of thought.
An example of privilege – white privilege: If you’re white, you don’t have to worry about your skin color working against you in terms of how people view you or perceive your financial responsibility. Law enforcement officers don’t racially profile you, follow you around, or pull you over because of your race. There are many ways in which white people are privileged over people of color & the examples listed are only a few.
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