Answer: when it is expressed between peoples of color. A Hispanic challenger to Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is facing hostility from many black Chicagoans as the mayoral runoff election nears on Tuesday. “I ain’t voting for no Chuy [the challenger’s nickname]. I ain’t voting for a Mexican,” a black man told the New York Times. A caller to a talk show said: “‘You’ve got to watch out for those Latinos, they’re going to set the blacks back, they’ve boxed us out,’” reported Representative Danny K. Davis. The Times chalked up such sentiments to “ethnic rivalries and suspicions.”
Imagine if a white voter had reported a similar policy against voting for “a Mexican” (or a black). The Times would have pounced on the statement as an expression of “racism” emblematic of the oppressive white power structure, and launched a series on how the enduring blight of racism among white Americans holds minority politicians back. People of color, however, get a free pass. Never mind that the racial hatred between black and Hispanic gangs is the biggest source of prison violence. Or that black hatred of whites is a pervasive but assiduously ignored feature of inner city culture. Academic theory holds that only whites can be racist. That theory seems to be widely held.