Great article, but the nuances between 'racism' and 'prejudice' are often lost when run intersectionality with class. Educated and reflective white people are well aware that there's no such thing as 'reverse racism' - because there are excellent authors like yourself and Jeannette Espinoza pointing it out. You'll have no argument from me on that count.
But the issue is a semantic one. The white person who experiences disadvantage and prejudice in their life doesn't stop for a discussion about systemic power struggles. Perhaps they should - but they won't. The nuance falls down in the understanding gap..... how can you, as a well paid writer, with a big following on Medium, a wonderful husband and a beautiful life abroad be more subjugated and disadvantaged than me and my five children living in a single caravan in the midwest?
Answer.... you can be, but that's going to take a whole lot of reasoning that person doesn't have the mental capacity for.
You're preaching to the converted on Medium, the discussion is longwinded - but that complexity will all be lost when it begins. In reality, the 'working class' have far more in common with disadvantaged BIPOC than anyone from the affluent middle classes of any skin colour. Politicians know that, that's why they divide the two as quickly as they can, something identity politics plays into. That is about people in the affluent middle class attempting to influence everyone else through labels, compelling rhetoric and a heady mix of Marxism-lite and post structuralism. It appeals to working class people about as much as a punch in the genitals.
Demagoguery of this kind stops real community progress in its tracks - whether that's Conservatives encouraging racism (white to black) or left-ists really hammering home the idea of differential prejudice as self-identification (black to white). That's why identity politics only continues the problem - It feels good, get lots of support from well meaning (usually middle class) white liberals but offers nothing of substance to solve the problem at hand. It turns everyone else off, not becuase what you're saying isn't correct (black people can't be racist to white people) but that it isn't relevant to the vast majority of people outside of the college educated bubble.
See my everything is racist now article for the end point of where identity politics is headed. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/we-did-it-everything-is-racist-and-patriarchal-now-9c43cebc5828
