Depends on the criticism. Racism can be a very subtle thing - in many cases we're taught to believe that it is always overt, when that's not the reality. Not anymore, anyway.
You're right there, pal. Sometimes it's so subtle that you have to think for hours to decode the ultra-subtle, cryptic, deeply coded racism. Eg, the other day I heard Bush say "God bless America". Sounds fine on the surface, right? But that's how the game is played. Subcousciously, they know people will get the hidden secret message: Why should it just be God Bless America? How about God Bless the Mexicans? God Bless the Africans? The racism is there staring you in the face if you look, but you have to be willing to ferret out the uber-fine, microscopic racism infesting the flowery, deceptive words.
Affirmative Action is a socio-economic balancing tool.
"Affirmative action" is an irrational, unconstitutional policy of racial discrimination that benefits people who were never discriminated against, and penalizes people who are utterly blameless. It overturns our concept of justice, which holds individuals, not groups responsible for their acts, and strikes at the very heart of our concept of the treatment of individuals by the government: the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
There's every possibility that, due to Affirmative Action, I didn't get into one or more of the three schools who rejected my applications three years ago. Does it piss me off a little that a black student may have gotten in with lower grades? A little. But then I realize that that that black student probably attended a sub-par public school because he was unable to afford private school (or even locate one that would take him) and that, due to the quality of his education, he did a little worse than me. It all balances out - if he'd had a higher quality high school education, like the one I got in my pearly-white high school in the middle of suburban Massachusetts, he'd probably have outscored me on the SATs.
Would you be, on reflection, able to discern how illogical it is for you to extrapolate your particular circumstances to white people in general? I grew up in the ghetto of toledo ohio - I went to outrageously bad schools - when I entered university - I felt like I had smashed into a brick wall from being ill-prepared. Then I saw blacks, including middle-class children of professionals, getting everything, and I got not much at all. Gosh, sterotypes are pretty stupid, aren't they?
Protesting Affirmative Action is like kicking a man in the shins then beating him in a footrace and getting angry when people call him the victor and not you, since, in the literal sense, you still beat him.
"Affirmative action" is like sending person A to jail because B robbed a bank, and then not returning the stolen money to C who was robbed, but rather to D, because he had the same melanin level as C.
In some cases, that's true. I've known a few people who've hauled out the cry of "racism!" far too early (and I'll usually try to call it when I see it). However, we shouldn't let that cloud our view of the fact that racism does still exist, it is still a pervasive social problem, and calling people on racist rhetoric is a necessity if any of us really wish to see the problem go away.
Why should racist rhetoric, and by that you mean anti-minority racist rhetoric, be given some special attention? Anti-Christian bigotry is pervasive in our society, and doesn't ruffle many peoples feathers. Actual DISCRIMINATION, not just rhetoric, against white males, is pervasive, as is ridicule of them in the media, but hey, let's not get excited about that - their just white males - hee hee. Sorry, I don't subscribe to the anti-racism jihad of Pee See Theology as something that is holier than holy - especially since 95% of the time it's chasing after something that isn't there, and all kinds of other bigotry is given a free pass.
