Page 43 - WhoAreWe...

narrative about two liberal white folks who find that there
may be harboring just a little bit of racism that they weren't
necessarily aware of. They called it Latent Racism.

Why is this important? Latent racism, which does seem to
exist, would demonstrate that eradicating this scourge from
our lives is going to be something that happens over time in
stages and requires constant and diligent attention. I know
many people who do not consider themselves racist, but
still verbally disparage groups of people based on race or
color, often as butts of jokes. They may not be wearing
white hoods and looking to "save the world for the white
race", but they definitely are still elevating themselves at
the expense of groups of people that do not look exactly the
way they do and are experiencing a feeling of pleasure
based on the feeling that they, somehow, are naturally
superior to the people they are mocking, often without even
being aware of it.

Further, if we find ourselves with a national leader, or
anyone with a mouthpiece and the ability to broadcast their
agenda who might be subtly (or not so subtly) encouraging
this destructive line of thinking, all the people who might
be on the fence and fighting the greater community's stance
against racism will be tempted to stop and say: Hey, I knew
I was right all along, and fall back into the depths of racism,
and feel very good about finding out that all along, they
were, in fact, naturally superior, just as they had always
thought. We all need to be aware of latent racism, and work
against it tirelessly. Everything good takes time.

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