The new threat: 'Racism without racists' By John Blake, CNN

bbkg79

I found this article interesting and true, I've actually observed this behavior with myself and other people. What scares me is if the Supreme Court passes a law based on "Disparate Impact".

The new threat: 'Racism without racists'

In a classic study on race, psychologists staged an experiment with two photographs that produced a surprising result.

They showed people a photograph of two white men fighting, one unarmed and another holding a knife. Then they showed another photograph, this one of a white man with a knife fighting an unarmed African-American man.

When they asked people to identify the man who was armed in the first picture, most people picked the right one. Yet when they were asked the same question about the second photo, most people -- black and white -- incorrectly said the black man had the knife.

Even before the Ferguson grand jury's decision was announced, leaders were calling once again for a "national conversation on race." But here's why such conversations rarely go anywhere: Whites and racial minorities speak a different language when they talk about racism, scholars and psychologists say.
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The knife fight experiment hints at the language gap. Some whites confine racism to intentional displays of racial hostility. It's the Ku Klux ? , racial slurs in public, something "bad" that people do.
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But for many racial minorities, that type of racism doesn't matter as much anymore, some scholars say. They talk more about the racism uncovered in the knife fight photos -- it doesn't wear a hood, but it causes unsuspecting people to see the world through a racially biased lens.

It's what one Duke University sociologist calls "racism without racists." Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, who's written a book by that title, says it's a new way of maintaining white ? in places like Ferguson.

"The main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits," says Bonilla-Silva.

"The more we assume that the problem of racism is limited to the ? , the birthers, the tea party or to the Republican Party, the less we understand that racial ? is a collective process and we are all in this game."

As people talk about what the grand jury's decision in Ferguson means, Bonilla-Silva and others say it's time for Americans to update their language on racism to reflect what it has become and not what it used to be.

The conversation can start, they say, by reflecting on three phrases that often crop up when whites and racial minorities talk about race.

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kingblaze84

Powerful article. This is exactly why I've said for a long time I'll never live in a White neighborhood, too many things can go wrong. Even with people who maybe aren't completely racist, the bias and prejudice is gonna be there, especially at night time and the history of White people being easily scared. I'll stick to living in decent, Black neighborhoods, ya'll can enjoy the White neighbors calling the cops on your Black ? and harassing you