There's context missing here. I'm not going to even pretend to know about New Zealand culture or it's history in relation to racism.
But in the US, institutional racism is very much a thing. It does not mean "only white people can be racist". It means, in simple terms, that the historical treatment of people of color - particularly black people - in the US has led to a structural imbalance when it comes to white people in power in comparison to black people in power (wealth, careers, politics, even media). Same with men in comparison to women.
Again, that does not mean black people can't be racist or women can't be sexist. They're two different things.
It’s because of a deeper sub conscious racism giving rise to what’s called benevolent discrimination. They know equality is the way to go and they want to be equal, but they don’t know how to unlearn the very fundamentality of what makes racism racism because of past flawed teachings or social conditioning.
It’s the same with benevolent sexism. A great example of that is whiteknighting. They want to treat women as equals, based on the solitary idea that women should be empowered, thus giving way to overcompensating with niceties. But all that is still based o the fundamental idea of women being weaker and more fragile, thus needing more assistance.
It’s late and I’m sleep deprived, but I hope that makes sense.
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u/Clarice_Ferguson Dec 11 '19
There's context missing here. I'm not going to even pretend to know about New Zealand culture or it's history in relation to racism.
But in the US, institutional racism is very much a thing. It does not mean "only white people can be racist". It means, in simple terms, that the historical treatment of people of color - particularly black people - in the US has led to a structural imbalance when it comes to white people in power in comparison to black people in power (wealth, careers, politics, even media). Same with men in comparison to women.
Again, that does not mean black people can't be racist or women can't be sexist. They're two different things.