As many of you may already be familiar with, the popular website Tumblr is a melting pot of many ideas and concepts from all walks of life, ranging from art to music to humor and even politics. With hundreds of new ideas and even more new members being added every day, it's now easier than ever to get sucked into the subculture it has to offer. However, this new ideology that has stemmed from the social and political side of Tumblr is crossing the line into something aggressive, and possibly dangerous.
A major social issue Americans face today is the continuous battle with racism. Whether we as a society want to acknowledge it or not, Racism is alive and well. Tumblr has made it a great point to keep social justice issues in the spotlight, especially when it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement and the active discrimination against minority groups in communities around the country. Despite the good intentions rooted in bringing awareness and encouraging activism, Tumblr has turned this movement into something negative: reversing the racism to be directed at White people. Comments like "I hate White people" and "White people are the worst" can be seen all over the website, as well as much more malicious remarks such as "White people should have the s*** beat out of them" and "Can we just kill all White people?".
While the first two phrases are relatively harmless and non-threatening, the last two phrases are major red flags. What makes this way of thinking so dangerous is that although it's just a nasty sentence said by some random person online, the actual idea and belief system behind it is extremely dangerous. Threatening physical violence and even murder against White people is accepted and often times supported by the users of this site, because they truly believe that minority groups cannot be racist. The Tumblr definition of racism has become "the act of the majority race using social and economic power to limit (a) minority race(s)". Since racial groups like Blacks and Latinos/Latinas are the minority, the things they say cannot be taken as racist since they are not in positions of power like whites are. However, this definition and belief is not true. The real definition of racism is "hatred or intolerance of another race or races." That means, any race regardless of social and economic status can be racist and actively discriminating against another.
Racism is never OK. It is never justified. What's been happening to minority groups in our country for so many years is horrendous, and the people responsible for this discrimination need to be held accountable. Our society needs to change and make living in this country safe and fair for all. That being said, this strike-back of online racism against Whites is only the beginning of something malevolent. It is never OK to raise a racial group up by knocking down another. It's especially unnecessary with such an important and revolutionary movement like the Black Lives Matter movement. If this harmful and misinformed mindset continues fester and eventually reach its way outside of the internet, the consequences could be devastating as it will not only drive an even bigger wedge between the different races that make up our society, but it will also drive our nation even further into political dysfunction.
