The short answer is yes…but there’s a nuanced difference in the expression of racism for Blacks than there is for Whites. In our current racialized society, anyone who holds ideas or who practices behaviors or who promotes policies that intentionally benefit one racial group over others and who perpetuates racial group inequity would be racist. In the U.S., Whites benefit from how our systems such as employment, criminal justice system, healthcare, wealth creation, housing, and education are designed; and Blacks, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) are disadvantaged. Whites, in their collective social group identity, created the social, economic and political systems that are inherently racist and that still exist today.

To the extent that a black person promotes policies that work to keep the status quo which are designed to strategically benefit Whites then they would be participating in perpetuating systemic racism and therefore racists. In sum, Blacks didn’t create the systemic racism but they can perpetuate it.