“In case you didn’t know it, racism is alive and well in the good ‘ole U.S. of A. There’s still the horrible racism, complete with hatred and violence. There’s also institutional racism, the kind where minorities don’t earn as much as whites and get passed over for promotions.”
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In case you didn’t know it, racism is alive and well in the good ‘ole U.S. of A.

There’s still the horrible racism, complete with hatred and violence.

There’s also institutional racism, the kind where minorities don’t earn as much as whites and get passed over for promotions. Often, they don’t even get a call back after they fill out applications.

But there’s a newer, more malevolent version of racism. You know the one, the one where whites claim that racism doesn’t exist. That’s right; whites believe that racism is a relic of our shameful past.

Some argue that blacks have made great strides in this country and are now on a level playing field with whites. Some go so far as to suggest that they have greater advantages than whites, due to affirmative action, quota systems and reverse racism.

We come across this all the time. Remember when Don Imus called the Rutgers’ women’s basketball players nappy headed hos? Afterward, he repeatedly asserted that he is not a racist, that he interacts with black people all the time.

Recently, Rush Limbaugh caused a flap after he borrowed the Magic Negro concept from an L.A. Times columnist and ran with it. All the way to a song parody about Barack Obama sung by an Al Sharpton impersonator. Limbaugh claimed that wasn’t racist either.

Remember when Michael Richards – Seinfeld’s Kramer – unleashed a barrage of racial epithets at several black people in the audience at a comedy club? During his public apology, he insisted he was not racist, that he did not know where that vitriolic hatred came from.

This is a problem.

Understandably, screaming the N-word at black people is not the equivalent of being a Klansman. But it’s not exactly innocuous either.

In fact, what Richards did is probably a lot more common than we would like to think.

When people have a negative experience involving a minority, racial slurs seem to be second-nature.

When whites deny that racism exists, it’s a slap in the face to the minorities who experience it every day of their lives.

But it also closes the door to any opportunity of discussing racism, dealing with it head-on and trying to get past it.

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