WHAT IS RACISM? I took a seminar on Racism when I was a social worker, taught by a black woman, and I learned a simple truth about why white people are racists and black people are not.
Racism is the notion that one race is better than another, and it is always established by the predominant race. These predominants have the power to make laws, establish policies, and otherwise show other races that they are "better." A good case in point is the old Jim Crow system, in which [i]by law[/i] a black person may not sit with a white person, eat in the same restaurant, walk on the same sidewalk, or even use the same toilet with a white person, because legally a black person is inferior to the makers of these laws--that is, white people. Sure, black people can hate white people, but they are not racists because they are simply reacting to the white establishment that forces them to be inferior to the dominant race. They have no legal power to establish a "black-only" status in the legal sense. Black people of the time did not think themselves superior to whites, but desired only to be equal to them. Therefore no official racism by definition existed. For instance, under Jim Crow "White Only" establishments seemed desirable for non-whites, but they were powerless to do anything about it. A black person might say, "Gee, I'd love to join that country club. It looks great." The white racist tells him, "Well you can't, because you're black and inferior to me." "Okay," says the black person. "I'm going to start my own country club for black people, and you can't join because you're white." "Fine!" comes the response. "I'm a white racist. Why would I even want to join a club that's full of black people?" And that is what makes the black person merely a reactionary to the white establishment, who refuse that person something he wants but cannot have.
Of course in predominantly non-white countries it can work the same way against white people, or people of a different religion. For instance, in a predominantly Muslim country Christians are looked upon as inferior, and the establishment makes official policies to keep them inferior. In Nazi Germany, Jews were officially inferior to the Nazi establishment who made the laws.
And this is why white people are racists and black people can't be, in the true sense.
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My argument dealt more with what your professor was spouting. Blacks in the North were treated as inferiors before, during and after the Civil War even though slavery had ended in all but four states that remained in the Union during the war. Even during the time of Jim Crow laws in the South, many school systems in the North were not integrated. Boston didn't integrate until around 1969 and they had no Jim Crow laws. Your professor excused the black man's racist actions in her hypothetical example but I disagree. Reasons for acting racist are still not excusable. Everyone from the beginning has had reasons for it, and in the beginning, they seemed like rational reasons. I say it is still racism period. As for true racism having to be established by the dominant race? Nah. Institutional racism, yeah. But a person can be racist regardless of their color or whether they are in the majority or minority.
