Can Whites be discriminated against? Was Judge Sotomayor wrong?

By Michael Vass | June 30, 2009

Since almost the moment that Judge Sotomayor had been named as a Supreme Court nominee, I have been asked my thoughts on the 19 firemen in the “reverse discrimination” case. Now that the Supreme Court has responded, I will further clarify my thoughts.

First, let me explain my thoughts on “reverse discrimination”. It does not exist. There is no such thing as reverse discrimination, it’s a made up term.

Discrimination is defined as

the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently, and prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment.

Thus the term reverse discrimination cannot exist. Least of all as it is used by the political circles. Discrimination against anyone is just that. It is not limited to nor exclusive for people of color.

So the question becomes, can Whites be discriminated against? The answer is yes, of course.

But the bigger question no one asks is – How can a White person be discriminated against in America? That is much more difficult and likely to inflame many. But I will try to provide a view.

In America, right now, to be White is an absolute advantage. While there have been many strides forward in race relations, the fact is that there is an obvious distinction made to people of color everyday. Most of these acts are subliminal and so ingrained in the populace that we don’t notice it, but that is not the same as its lack of existence.

Look at any television channel, cable or broadcast. I’ve spoken about this often, the fact that consistently throughout my lifetime of 41 years the number of people in front of cameras has never reflected the actual proportion of African Americans or people of color in the nation. Television has always maintained a view of the nation that more reflects the 1940’s or 50’s than the 21st century. In fact looking at all television programs, and movies, we see that all people of color – in front and behind the cameras combined, account for some 5 – 8% of all the people involved. A far cry from the 30% we actually comprise in this nation.

Stepping to the news media, there is a consistent emphasis to sensationalize any crime that is even believed to be committed by a person of color. At the same time crimes by Whites are more often marginalized. Take for example the Duke Rape case where the reported victim was the target of media attacks and the White lacrosse team were envisioned as saintly by comparison. Which ignored their actual activities on Duke campus and the events of the night the now rejected rape took place. And this says nothing about cases completely ignored like the Megan Williams case in West Virginia.

Or look at how police officers acting in a manner more akin to gangs against people of color are reported. We have the case of 15 officers in Philadelphia beating down 3 Black men that were innocent because the police were upset. There is the case of Sean Bell were he and 2 companions were shot over 50 times for no apparent reason beyond the suspicion of an officer. We can look at numerous other cases across the nation, perhaps no more famous than Rodney King. But all these cases have a similar trend. The White officers are presumed innocent and justified while the person of color is framed as being guilty and thus inciting the incidents.

There is the fact that many cases of police violence is completely ignored by the media. Just this year, Oscar Grant’s murder, the shooting of Robbie Tolan, and the murder of Adolph Grimes have all been under-reported. I doubt many have heard of any of these cases unless they have read my blogs, or those of other bloggers, as the national media refuses to discuss them. In fact, in Oakland, the Grant murder sparked riots – which the riots were the only news discussed by the national media and not the cause.

Looking at a different aspect of law, there is the legal system. It is biased system, few with clear thoughts will dispute this. The bias is that those who are poorer will be less likely to win a charge. With higher proportions of people of color being less wealthy, there is that bias. Add to that the fact that a person of color convicted of a crime will receive a penalty that is 2 – 3x as severe as a White person convicted of the same crime brings in another level of discrimination. Like the boy (the name escapes me this second but he was 17 at the time, and is Black) who was convicted to 10 years for having consentual oral sex with a minor (who was 14 at the time, and was White as I recall) that actively and publicly pursued him at a party.

Continued in part 2…