Painting by Norman Rockwell

One of the big problems with racism in America is that a lot of people, white people, only think of it in extremes.  They will admit that there are still some racist people around, but not a lot, except, possibly, in places like Mississippi.  That is, except for people in Mississippi, who say Mississippi is not racist, maybe it exists elsewhere, not here.  Not in America.   I mean, sure, there are some Klansmen running around, but everyone hates them, right?  I mean, I hate the KKK, so I can’t be racist.   That is how people see it – if there are no extremes, there is no racism.

Uhm, no.

It is easy to find many types of racism at many levels.

At work there are those people who think they are well meaning but might say some insensitive things here and there, not realizing that it makes some of their team members feel unwanted.  And then there is that hiring person who doesn’t realize that for some reason they call a person named James much quicker than Jamel, that they hire someone, who coincidentally is white, because they will fit in with the group better than the other candidate, who just happens to be black.  Study after study shows this happens all of the time.  It is the rule, not the exception. Continue reading →