Bigotry is Bigotry. Or is it?

Recently, a friend raised the question on Facebook of whether or not hating someone for being straight, white, cis, male, etc. is equivalent to their opposites: hating people for being gay, POC, trans, female, etc.  This is a really important question because it speaks to an important misunderstanding in our society.  Especially among those at the top of this culture's hierarchies, it is often said that "hate is hate" (which is sort of true) and that "reverse racism" is a thing (which is not true).

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying that there aren't some POC who might outright hate white people; nor that there might not be some queers who hate straight and cis people.  However, when someone says something like, "Hey, hate is hate, and some black folks hate white folks too" they are making a mistake.  Firstly, usually this is being used to justify their own bigotries, as in, "Hey, I may

have said something fucked up, but everyone is 'racist,' so it's OK."  It is not OK.  Using someone else's shitty behavior to justify your own shitty behavior is just a way of avoiding responsibility for your own bullshit.  Don't fucking do it.

There's a more important point though, which has to do with power structures, hierarchies, and the ability to enforce one's opinions.  It is the case that anyone can be bigoted or prejudiced, but things like racism/white supremacy, sexism/misogyny/patriarchy, transphobia and homophobia/straight- and cis-supremacy, etc. are actually power structures, NOT just personal opinions.  A white person who hates a black person is an asshole, but without the power structures and hierarchies of white supremacy and patriarchy, his hate is largely irrelevant. Because POC, women, non-binary folk, LGBT+ folks, etc. do not have access to these same systems, any hatred they may harbor doesn't have the same effects as does that of the people at the top of these respective hierarchies.  Does that make any bigotries they may harbor "good"?  Probably not, but quibbling over it just reeks of white, straight, male, cis people trying to fucking make themselves feel better about being racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic assholes.

An example: In 2008, it was revealed that Barrack Obama's former pastor had made comments during a sermon that some white Americans found unpleasant.  Obama was made to apologize after being dragged through the mud by Fox News and the like.  Fast forward eight years and Donald Trump can literally appoint white nationalists to his cabinet; can make blatantly racist and misogynist statements; can spout hate repeatedly and be elected President of The United States.  Barack Obama is made to apologize for someone else's comments, when those comments were actually relatively fair, while Donald Trump is elected president.

The relevancy here is that POC and other oppressed people's may or may not harbor hate, bigotry, and so forth.  But regardless of that, white people can spout hate and have that hate enforced as policy from the highest office in the land while POC cannot even form a not-too-controversial opinion about history and anyone remotely connected to them has to apologize.  This, of course, is one of the benefits of whiteness (and maleness; straightness; cis-identity; etc.): white Americans are individuals and are treated as such; white Americans are never "representatives" of their race, held accountable for the actions of other whites, either historical or present.  POC, on the other hand, never stop being representatives of their race in the eyes of white Americans and must constantly show white America that they are one of the "good ones."  Those in more powerful positions (white, male, cis, able-bodied, etc.; or those who exist at the intersections of any or all of these) will regularly have their opinions, their bigotries, buttressed by society while those who are not at the top of these hierarchies will have their opinions about those who are at the top not only challenged, but they will be attacked for holding those opinions.  This will both delegitimize those at the bottom while legitimizing the prejudices of the powerful.

So.... we live in a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, patriarchal society in which socio-economic inequality is the norm... and you want to claim that all of that doesn't make a fucking difference in bigotry and hatred?  Give me a fucking break.