Aversive Racism Rears Its Ugly Head

White people - especially intelligent and educated white people - calmly describing their fellow American citizens as niggers is too often portrayed as a thing of the past. Or of ignorant red necks. That all ended in the 1960s, the official version goes. Martin Luther King and JFK put a stop to it. The truth is far different. Things have changed hugely since the 1960s but that period of time is not yet history.

For the really scary thing about Lizzie talking about 'niggers' was not that she had those opinions. It was that she clearly was unaware voicing them would be shocking. It was a useful reminder of how close some 'history' really is. There are people alive today who have been involved in lynching black Americans or those working for their civil rights.

-The Guardian


Good to see someone recognizing it. The British view is interesting and a little different than mine. But it brings up a good point. Racism has changed since the civil rights movement of the 1960s but it is still there. We cannot claim that we are not racist- if we do that we are misleading ourselves. The best we can do is claim that we are trying to not be racist. Indeed.