The definitions of racism and prejudice are commonly misunderstood and often confused with each other. What some claim to be “reverse racism” is actually prejudice, and though racism tends to be thought of as any discrimination toward another race, it is actually a complex societal system. To clarify, I’ll supply some definitions.

Institutional Racism (n): “Racial discrimination that has become established as normal behavior within a society or organization.”

Prejudice (n): “Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.”

Each of these definitions is provided by Oxford Dictionaries, a source I commonly use and trust. I was dismayed, however, to find a lackluster definition of racism on its website.

While Oxford Dictionaries labeled racism as the belief that each race has certain qualities that make it either superior or inferior to other races, the definition does not seem to take the “-ism” into account. Words ending in “-ism” refer to a distinctive practice or system. Because Oxford Dictionaries did not include that in its definition of racism, I provided only institutional racism above.

Sparked by a disgusting chant from the now-disbanded University of Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Huffington Post contributor Dain Dillingham came up with five questions for anyone who thinks they are victims of reverse racism.

The questions are:

1. Have you ever been interviewed by a black person for a job? More than once?
2. Have you ever sought financial advice or a home/business loan from a black person?
3. Have you ever sought the help of a black real estate agent in finding a home?
4. Have you ever been confronted by a black officer, black judge, or been represented by a black lawyer?
5. Have you ever had a black teacher or professor? If yes, more than three? More than five?

Dillingham’s questions intrigued me and provided a lot of food for thought. He said when he hears Caucasian people say reverse racism is real because they once walked through a neighborhood and were harassed by a group of black people or because a black person called them racist, he feels for them.

Dillingham laments that they were harassed and that they felt unfairly judged. But what they experienced in these moments was prejudice, not racism, reverse or otherwise.

Reverse racism, in my opinion, does not exist. As Dillingham says, “There’s a difference between having your feelings hurt and being systematically denied access to the things you need to succeed in life.”

Paula S. Rothenberg, author of “Race, Class, and Gender in the United States,” said whether or not people of color can be racist depends on your definition of racism. If one defines racism as racial prejudice, the answer is yes. She believes people of color can and do have racial prejudices. Rothenberg argues that if racism is defined as a system of advantage based on race, however – which is how I define it – then the answer is no.

“People of color are not racist because they do not systematically benefit from racism,”
Rothenberg said. “And equally important, there is no systematic cultural and institutional support or sanction for the racial bigotry of people of color.”

She continues, “Reserving the term racist only for behaviors committed by whites in the context of a white-dominated society is a way of acknowledging the ever-present power differential afforded whites by the culture and institutions that make up the system of advantage and continue to reinforce notions of white superiority.”

If you search “beautiful woman” on Google Images, you will get a page full of pictures of white women. You have to scroll far down before you’ll see one or two women of color.

Search “beautiful man,” and you’ll get the same result, with a few Latino men thrown in. “Cute kids,” likewise, gives you countless pictures of white babies and children. Considering the vast and diverse population of the United States, not to mention the world, it makes me very sad that there is so little representation for people of color in society’s ideals of beauty.

The normality of only associating beauty with pale skin, of an incredibly small number of people of color in positions of authority, education or power, and the ignorance of the definitions of racism and prejudice are perpetuating the problem.

“These systems are not upheld by people wearing white hoods and burning crosses in front yards,” Dillingham said. “They are upheld by deeply entrenched and subversive cultural beliefs and practices that, 50 years later, we still choose to willfully ignore, until they’re impossible to do so.”

Dillingham’s five questions are eye openers for representation in our society and a real lack of diversity that, even in 2015, feed into a social structure of institutional racism.

We can’t ignore it anymore.

Jamie Bernard can be reached at bern2479@stthomas.edu.