*Volt, but I like your safe-themed version

You touched on the point there, although you might argue it’s only a semantic difference. If you accept that “white” isn’t a race, then definitionally, you cannot be racist against white people. Just like you can’t be racist against Muslims, at least on the basis of their religion alone. You can definitely discriminate against those groups, but calling it racism is simply incorrect.

You can also delve into a discussion about the harm done by this kind of joke. The classic metaphor is that you don’t blame the bullied kid for making fun of their bullies. There are power imbalances built into our culture, and so pretending that a joke at the expense of white people could ever do the same amount of harm as one at the expense of a racialized group is frankly ridiculous.

My comment is basically saying the same thing as your first paragraph, just in a more academic way. If it sounds like a fascist take on it, that’s only because fascism is built on taking advantage of humanity’s inherent in-group/out-group dynamics.

The real answer is that “white” isn’t really a race. It’s a socioeconomic in-group that exists to other those who aren’t collectively agreed to be a part of it. Over time, a formerly racialized group may achieve “whiteness” via assimilation, like the Irish, Italian, and Jewish populations in America.

The other reply is wrong. If you have part of a post highlighted when you click its post number to reply, it will automatically put the highlighted text in front of the meme arrow. The image is definitely implying that the person they were replying to accidentally used a Cyrillic character.