The Existence of Reverse Discrimination in Society

ENGL135

The Existence of Reverse Discrimination in Society

Three white male students of the Lacrosse team at Duke University of Durham County, North Carolina in 2006 were accused of raping an African-American female at a party (Duke Lacrosse Case, 2006). They were tried legal standards by the U.S. court system. But despite their court trial, they were accused of rape by presumption from certain members of the media, some within the public and fellow students and faculty. Even the district attorney of Durham County, Mike Nifong made public statements about their purported guilt during the trial of the accusers. Those who rushed towards guilty judgment of the white males raping the woman were because she was black and the males were racist whites. At the end of their trial, the three males were found not guilty of the rape, the county district attorney was disbarred for abuse of prosecutorial discretion, and the black female accuser was discovered to be lying about the incident, as well as guilty of other occurrences of deception. While this was a high profile case, there are other examples of such injustice. In effect, reverse discrimination in the U.S. is a reality that does exist.

Defining Reverse Discrimination

Currently, while white Caucasians are bordering on being the majority ethnicity in the U.S., changing demographics point to an increasingly racially diverse population (The Grio, 2011). In the past, because there were more whites in the U.S., the term minority or minorities described a smaller and/or possibly oppressed population of non-white persons. Today, the number of minorities in the U.S. has increased due to immigration, as well as steady birth rates. Because of changing demographics, the term minority may be misleading by current standards. Despite the current economic and social gains minorities have made over the years, and the decreasing predominance of whites, Caucasians still hold positions of authority, economic or...