“You black guys are racist!!”

September 12th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Young Black Professional Guide You black guys are racist!!!Can relatively oppressed people be racist, classist, sexist, etc.?

In my undergraduate sociology courses, we were told that blacks could not be racist because the act of being racist requires power and that blacks aren’t powerful enough in this country to be racist. Being racist is not to be confused with being discriminating – which blacks and all relatively oppressed people can be.

I hope I’m not oversimplifying this. I’ve come across this theory in numerous pieces of literature outside of my sociology classes, so perhaps someone else has too and can explain it better than me.

I adopted this belief initially, because it made sense to me. But I’m not quite so sure anymore. Not because I disagree, but because I, a person of relative power – as far as these theorists were concerned, believe that I’ve been the victim of classism at the hands of someone (seemingly) less privileged than me.

There have been several incidents in my life where I believe working class/uneducated people have discriminated against me, because I was a “college man” or whatever they mockingly labeled me. Most of these incidents have been when I was trying to get a part-time job that didn’t require a four-year degree. The individuals in the hiring positions always questioned if I had the skills to work at a restaurant, move boxes or sell athletic shoes since most of my work experience had been in positions that required post-secondary education.

My sociology professors might say that the people who discriminated against me can’t be labeled classist, because my isolated incident isn’t significant enough to be a widespread problem or to reverse how often these people are discriminated against for their lack of education. I hope that makes sense.

What do you think? Can blacks be racist? Women be sexist? Poor people be classist? Or am I just complaining about isolated incidents of discomfort that threatened my privilege?

Eugene is a journalist in Phoenix. Check out his lighter fare at Intelligent Ignorance.

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