I thought there was an important and very true point made by Ian Haney Lopez when he said that most racists are nice caring people capable of generosity, and he also said if you were to ask them if racism was still relevant in their lives they would truthfully believe it wasn’t. At the same time Lopez said that these same people were capable of dehumanizing people and sometimes “brutal violence”. Lopez also pointed out that these people were racist through an idea system that makes excuses as to why certain groups of people get privileges and advantages over others, and it also tells them who is considered trustworthy, law abiding, etc.
Usually when people think of racism the focus is on blatant acts of overt racism, for example somebody using a racial slur, but not enough attention is put on covert racism. In our society institutional racism has shown its lasting effects from things we have discussed in class like gentrification and still goes under the radar in other forms. Last year I wrote a research paper on racial discrimination in the job recruitment process, and I came across a study that created a large number of fake job applications all with similar qualifications and skillsets and sent them to different companies in Chicago and Boston. Half of the job applications were given stereotypical Black names and the other half of the applications were given stereotypical White names, and a significantly higher number of the White applications received call backs over the Black applications. The employers of these companies are not racists in the fact that they despise people of color or that they use racial slurs on a regular basis but because of who society tells them are trustworthy or qualified to work a white collar job.
Bobby
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