The term “reverse racism” was coined in 1966 after an african-american civil rights organization, accused the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of reverse racism after their attempts to push white members from the local government in Alabama to make room for people of color.

It is unclear whether or not this phenomenon is an actual problem.

Is prejudice against white people really racism?

By definition, racism is discrimination, usually initiated by people or races in a position of power that paints a different race as inferior.

It’s hard to call prejudice against white people “reverse racism,” especially when it punches up rather than down.

As S.E. Smith, a writer for “TheDailyDot,” wrote in 2014, “To be racist, you need to posses two traits. The first is privilege: A structural, institutional, and social advantage. Furthermore, you also have to have power: the ability, backed up by society, to be a strong social influencer, with greater leeway when it comes to what you do, where and how.”

White people benefit from privilege when a white man with a criminal record is 5%  more likely to get a job than a black man with a clean record.

“People of color talking about white people don’t occupy positions of privilege or power,” Smith wrote. “Therefore, they cannot be racist. Racism is structural, not personal.”

White people in the past have delt the majority of racism; this points back to the fact that racism is purely structural, not personal.