"People of color, then, can help to reinforce the White power structure by lashing out against other non-White groups. That said, we must realize that interpersonal racism targeting dominated groups and interpersonal racism targeting the dominant group do not pack the same punch. Take, for example, the following scenario: Two young men, one Black, the other White, bump into each other on the street. The Black man calls the White man a “honky.” In response, the White man calls the Black man a “boy.” Both racial slurs are racial slurs and should be labeled as such, and both reinforce racial divisions. However, unlike “honky,” “boy” connects to the larger system of institutional racial domination. The word derives its meaning -and power! from slavery, when enslaved African men were stripped of their masculine honor and treated like children. “Boy” -and many other epithets aimed at Blacks! invokes such times—times when murdering, torturing, whipping, and raping enslaved Blacks were not illegal acts. Epithets towards White people, including “honky,” have no such equivalent. “Boy” also reminds the Black man how things stand today. If the confrontation escalates and the police are called, the Black man knows that the police officers will probably be White and that he might be harassed or looked upon as a threat; if the two men meet in court, the Black man knows that the lawyers, judge, and jurors will possibly be mostly -if not all! White; and if the two men are sentenced, the African American man knows—as do many criminologists -e.g., Tonry 1995!—that he will get the harsher sentence. “Boy” brings the full weight of institutional racism—systematic, historical, mighty—down upon the Black man. “Honky,” even if delivered with venomous spite, is powerless by comparison."