A couple days ago, I shared one of my articles on Reddit about running being too white, and the responses shocked me.

People called me a racist. Why would I use the term "too white"? How would it look if someone called the NBA or NFL "too black"? Why was I so racist against white people? Why would I use such a racist term like "too white" in my headline?

Needless to say, I was taken aback by the visceral response. I didn't even think twice about using the term "too white" because I understood the phrase to mean that something isn't as accessible to people of color as it should be. A lot of people took it to mean "there needs to be fewer white people doing this thing."

I didn't back down. I believe in treating everyone with civility but I did not apologize in my responses to people who called me an anti-white racist or told me to change the headline, or they would report me. But it wasn't the first time I heard about reverse racism and anti-white racism. I never really participated in those discussions before but in high school, discussions around affirmative action for college admissions got ugly very quickly. Many people claimed anti-white or anti-Asian discrimination.

It got me thinking — is anti-white racism a thing?

First of all, conversations about race are uncomfortable, especially if you're not used to discussing them. The people who called me an anti-white racist could have been my friends because I've heard similar critiques of people who talked too much about race and identity politics. To be clear, I used to be one of these people that made these critiques. I thought that class was a more important factor to focus on than race, but the truth is that both matter a lot.

Then I started teaching in a predominantly black inner-city school with only one white student, where I see the full brunt of systemic discrimination and segregation rear its head. Talking about race became a daily discussion because it allowed me to survive and not give up hope. The work is extremely hard, and the hurdles that society has historically stacked against my kids validated how hard my work is on a daily basis.

Race does matter. Ignoring it and pretending that it doesn't exist does a disservice to everyone. Not acknowledging your personal prejudices and your relationship with race just demonstrates that you need to talk about race more. I thought I could be color-blind — "I don't see color. I just see people!" — in the past and treat everyone equally, with respect, but that wasn't true. We have prejudices we were ingrained with since childhood that we may try to suppress. Colorblindness invalidates people's experiences with racism, and above all, doesn't acknowledge how much race does matter.

This is to say that I definitely do understand where the criticism about me being an anti-white racist comes from. Not everyone has been witness to the injustices of lead paint poisoning and the other side of de factosegregation in urban communities. And I certainly think that all the conversation and civil discussion in the world won't change someone's mind about anti-white racism. Sometimes, you just have to see it and live it for a bit.

Anyways, a part of me a couple years back did believe in anti-white and reverse racism. But just because you're not in the KKK and you don't think you're racist doesn't mean institutional racism doesn't exist. Just because you're an ally of protestors and you think the cops who killed Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Gardner should have been locked up, doesn't mean institutional racism doesn't exist. If the police department here in Baltimore is any indication, black cops can be just as brutal as white cops. The issue isn't the color of the cops, but an institutional problem.

That means the problem is a lot bigger than all of us. That means that the system discriminates against underprivileged minorities, and we can't cure racism by just being nice to the people of color in our lives. The problem isn't individuals like a couple bad cops or a couple bad racists. It's the political system we were brought into and live in. At some level, there's nothing we can do about it than acknowledge how heavily the cards are stacked in favor of white people.

So no, calling something "too white" is not racist because it acknowledges the role of race in making something inaccessible to people of color. And for the critics who say the critique is as bad calling the NBA or NFL "too black," well, there are few forces barring white people from joining the NBA or NFL and making basketball or football accessible to them. There are no political and historical barriers that prevent white people from accessing sports and you can't tell me that there aren't any barriers when you look at it the other way.

Look, I haven't abandoned the idea that class matters a lot too, and that liberals may have a blind spot for the suffering of the white working class. I know a lot of good, kind people who weren't of great means who helped change my life. Again, the problem rarely doesn't come in the form of individuals, but the way societal systems are designed.

I understand critiques that taking aim at forces as amorphous as "systemic racism" and "historic forces" is vague and an overuse of liberal buzzwords. But let us take those amorphous forces to acknowledge and mature to the point that, well, everyone is racist. Everyone has internalized societal and cultural prejudices that see white as good and black as bad, even people of color. Just look at the emphasis a lot of minorities place on lighter skin equating to beauty.

As such, I think it's lazy to take aim at a couple scapegoats and symbols of racism, and not look at why we believe what we believe. We can get rid of Trump and cut off the head of the snake, but another head will grow, Democrat or Republican. No elected leader is going to heal our racist political system, because it's been designed that way since the inception of the country.

And let us be reminded that the lukewarm "colorblindness" of Democrats can be just as dangerous as the outright racist statements of Trump. The blame game between liberals and conservatives completely neglects the fact that racism is a continuum where we all have a part.

If you don't believe the words of Shya Scanlon that a prejudice "buried so deep that it cannot even be acknowledged" is as insidious as a "prejudice openly expressed," watch "Get Out" by Jordan Peele. I won't spoil too much of the movie, but the protagonist, Chris, is brought to the home of his white girlfriend, Rose, to meet her parents. When they arrive at her parents' estate, Chris discovers a mansion where Rose's white family has black servants and is exposed to Rose's family awkwardly dancing around race.

Rose's father constantly talks about how he would have voted for Obama a third time, and how Obama was the best President ever. Rose's brother continually talks at the dinner table about how Chris's genetic frame and physical physique would make him great for wrestling and MMA. These people are "not racist," and yet make life so uncomfortable for Chris.

Think about why inner-city projects are called projects. They were designed that way. By 1973, the United States created 1 million housing project units to house needy families. These projects were disproportionately put in poor black neighborhoods because placing them in more wealthy and white areas of cities would have reduced property values and led to white flight.

To me, all these dynamics that result in these systemically discriminatory practices can make us feel helpless. What, after all, can we even do? I don't really know. But awareness is the first step, so let's realize that wherever we stand, liberal or conservative.