Is reverse racism ok?

It's something I've spent a lot of time thinking about... is reverse racism ever ok? I live in a country which sanctions racism against whites. Oh sure, there must be some parents that tell their kids they should love all people, and there are many, many, many people who are kind and loving regardless of race. But all messages from the state media and even from schools seem to indicate that it's ok to hate - as long as you're hating the race that first hated you. I've been in so many conversations about how horrible the whites are or were. Maybe people didn't think I could understand, or maybe they didn't care if I could. I always dismiss it in my head, knowing that a lot of people have had bad experiences with individual white people in the past. My Canadian education tells me you're not allowed to make a jump from "Sally was really rude to me" to "all whites are rude" but that's not part of the education system here. I know I have white privilege. I'm convinced that a lot of white people did a lot of horrible things. I excuse attitudes that are racist against whites. But IS reverse racism ok?

Right now the state media is reporting that whites are flocking back into the country, and going back to farms to try to take back their land. It's hard to know how many people are believing this, but it makes a great excuse to take action if you do. Of course, most of these farms were seized already - back in 2000 - by "war veterans" (many of them too young to have actually been in the war of independence) who were given the ok by government to take back the land. Some white farms are left, and now there are reports of war veterans going to take them over - to take sovereignty once and for all. Most of these white farmers are Zimbabwean, African - born and bred here, but they're portrayed as foreigners, the enemy, the oppressors. Although the white farmers arguably did a lot for Zimbabwean agricultural production and the economy, I'm sure they also benefited personally. So they had to pay for that, right? To the real Zimbabweans? ZANU's slogan was "our land, our people" so it's quite a clever ploy to try to convince people that now that there are rumours of an MDC win (presidential results are still not announced), the whites are coming back into re-colonize. Even the West's promises of foreign aid for a new government are being cited as proof that the West has rigged these election results (which again, haven't even been announced).

I'm writing this post as a person who has also spewed a lot of reverse racism and felt a lot of anger towards people of her own race. I'm still trying to figure things out. I've been continually amazed at how living in Zimbabwe has challenged my views, my politics and my thinking. The older I get, the less I think I know. But I do know for sure that nothing is just black and white.