Ariella Israel
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
Issue Brief
Issue Brief: The Myth of Reverse Racism Against
European Americans with Higher Socio-Economic Status
Key Words: whites, reverse racism, European Americans, affirmative action, socio-economic
status
Description: This issue brief addresses the perception that European Americans of a higher
socio-economic status are subjected to reverse discrimination. Through an analysis of court
cases and of the existing societal structure, this brief demonstrates why the claim of reverse
racism has no merit.
Key Points:





The European American population has come to believe that they have replaced African
Americans as the primary victims of discrimination in America.
The European American perception is that racism is a zero-sum game, in which the
decrease in anti-African American racism over the last number of decades has an inverse
relationship with anti-white racism.
Numerous cases have been brought to the Supreme Court with claims of reverse racism.
In each case, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of affirmative action, thereby
effectively discrediting any merit of reverse racism.
In order for there to be reverse racism, it would require a complete overturn of the current
institutional structure of society, including the public and private sectors.
Issue Brief:
First introduced in 1961 by President Kennedy, affirmative action manifests itself
through assorted programs at the federal, state and local levels which are designed to ensure that
minorities have access to the same career, academic, and financial opportunities that historically
have been preserved for European Americans with higher socio-economic status.1 However,
since the 1970s, members of the European American socio-racial group have argued that
affirmative action programs manifest a form of reverse racism which has become so prevalent
that this group is now itself the target of discrimination in terms of academic admissions and
career placement and advancement. This has become the primary argument used to attack
affirmative action programs. Despite the anecdotal evidence often forming the basis for these
1
Brunner and Rowen, p. 1.
Ariella Israel
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
Issue Brief
arguments, reverse racism has neither statistical basis nor sociological merit as the institutional
structure at the core of the system was created by and for European Americans from a higher
socio-economic class who continue to form a controlling power block in American society.
The first piece of legislation to address discrimination was Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination not only against minorities, but against anyone based
upon race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Notwithstanding the majority of European
Americans in the U.S. and their historical economic influence, the European American
population has come to believe that they have replaced African Americans as the primary victims
of discrimination in America. In fact, the perception of increased racial inequality as threatening
to the white status in society has increased over the last number of years. In a recent study
conducted by Tufts University and Harvard Business School, researchers found that although
whites believe more progress has been made towards racial equality than African Americans,
they believe that this progress has come at the expense of their standing in society. The
European American perception is that racism is a zero-sum game, in which the decrease in antiAfrican American racism over the last number of decades has an inverse relationship with antiwhite racism. In fact, the researchers found in a survey distributed to both European Americans
and African Americans that 11% of whites gave anti-white bias the maximum rating of 10
compared to only 2 percent of whites who rated anti-black bias a 10. From these findings,
illustrated in the graph below, we can see that European Americans have come to believe that
anti-white bias is more prevalent than anti-black bias.2
2
Norton and Sommers (2011), p. 216.
Ariella Israel
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
Issue Brief
Claims of reverse racism have been the central argument behind an increasingly large
number of Supreme Court cases. Most notably were the cases of Grutter v. Bollinger et al. and
Gratz v Bollinger et al. in which European Americans denied admission by the University of
Michigan filed law suits against the school alleging discrimination as the result of affirmative
action policies at the school. However, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that academic institutions
may take race into consideration as part of the admissions process as long as the application
process is focused on an individual inquiry and not solely the minority or majority status of the
applicant.3 By ruling in favor of affirmative action programs, the Supreme Court effectively
discredited claims of reverse racism in those cases.
Even without the Supreme Court rulings to discredit the logic behind reverse racism, the
concept itself is essentially a straw man. Discrimination is not solely based upon attitude, as it
also requires having the power to carry out discriminatory practices through institutions of our
society. In order for there to be reverse racism, there would have to be a complete overturn of
the current institutional structure of society, including the public and private sectors. However,
while individuals may harbor an anti-white prejudice, people of color lack the power to
3
Affirmative Action (2013), p. 2.
Ariella Israel
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
Issue Brief
discriminate against whites on a larger scale. Both politics and the economy in the U.S. are very
much dominated by European Americans from middle to upper class backgrounds (economic
dominance is specifically demonstrated by Figure 1, in which the median household income for
Whites comes only second to Asians, who have the highest median household income due to
their multi-generational household structures). As a result of European American political and
economic dominance, American culture is still very much one that promotes whiteness as the
norm. Reverse racism is therefore not a reality, but a myth created by European Americans from
higher socio-economic standing to protect their socio-racial group’s standing in society.
Ariella Israel
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
Issue Brief
Works Cited:
"Affirmative Action: Court Decisions." National Conference of State Legislatures. N.p., n.d.
Web. 1 Mar. 2015
Brunner, Borgna, and Beth Rowen. "Affirmative Action History." Infoplease. Pearson
Education, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Norton, Michael I., and Samuel R. Sommers. "Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game That
They Are Now Losing." Sage Journals. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
General References and Websites:
http://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/whites-believe-they-are-victims-racism-more-o
http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.pdf
http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/index.aspx
http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Millennials-Survey-Report.pdf
http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/reverse-racism-doesnt-exist/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-reifowitz/if-you-think-reverse-raci_b_6834736.html