Racism is a prevailing issue in the modern day world. But what many people fail to realize, or perhaps more accurately, fail to acknowledge, is that racism towards white people does in fact exist. Now I know that your first bigoted instinct is to immediately discredit me for being a spoiled little white girl, which is actually great, because it allows me to further prove a point. White people oftentimes aren’t allowed to have problems. Our “white privilege” prevents us from fully appreciating the suffering of others, and is to blame for our narrow-minded and superior attitudes. Pardon my french, but I think that’s bullshit.

Sure, I suppose you could call what I’m talking about “reverse racism,” but really any type of prejudice or discrimination towards any person based on their ethnicity or skin color is just blatant racism. Many people of color claim that white people are treated better than them, and I have no doubt that there are certain cases in which this is true. However, the opposite is just as correct. For instance, I recently read a post where the writer argued that when a person of color moves into a white neighborhood, they are instantly scrutinized, as their neighbors make snap judgments about their integrity. But if a white person were to relocate to a predominately black, or hispanic part of town, they would be looked at with just as much suspicion, and treated just as differently.

But the issue reaches far beyond mere perception, and extends into the realm of double standards. Take for example, the Miss USA pageant. The 2014 winner, Nia Sanchez, happened to be a Latina woman. After her crowning, the internet promptly exploded with messages of pride from the Latina community. Identical to the way in which the Indian population reacted when Nina Davuluri won Miss America 2014. The problem here is if you took some of these perfectly acceptable messages, and replaced either the words “Latina” or “Indian” with the word “white,” they somehow transform into unacceptable racism. For instance, where it is seen as representing your ethnicity to tweet “So happy a Latina woman won Miss USA this year!” It’s simply seen as bigoted to use the same platform to say “Wow, I’m so thankful a white woman took home the crown!”

Furthermore, a “Miss Black America” contest is held every single year in the United States. If a similar pageant was organized exclusively for white women, protestors would be crying out for justice and claiming that society was moving backwards. If you can celebrate your culture, why can’t I do the same?

While I understand that it is important for minorities to be represented, I think it may be time to take another look at who is really the minority. In a lot of places in the U.S., especially the southwest, white people are becoming the minority. However, it is still common practice to hand out scholarships to kids purely because their last name is Lopez or Martinez, or because they’re 1/5 Native American or African American. Meanwhile, students like me, who studiously worked all throughout high school for straight A’s are forced to take out thousands of dollars in loans just to attend college.

None of this is to take away from the struggles of immigrants in the past. And to finally address the elephant in the room- slavery. Is it okay to tell someone to “just get over it”? No. But is it okay to hold my race eternally accountable for something that our ancestors did in which we had no part in and find as equally repulsive as you? Definitely not.

I’m not saying that racism does not exist, and I’m not saying that people aren’t judged. But if it’s wrong for muslims to immediately be labeled as terrorists, or black people to looked at as thugs and criminals, it is just as wrong to assume that every white person believes that their skin color makes them superior to others and that their problems can’t possibly be as important as yours. The only way to truly eradicate racism, is for people of all races (white people included) to stop using their ethnicity as a crutch or an excuse, and work hard to make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in.