I can recall having a conversation with my (very diverse) group of friends the other day about racism. One friend said that racism basically doesn't exist because most people don't "believe" or outright say that racism is a good thing. All the black people in the room (including myself) collectively had increased pulses and became annoyed. My friend and I said that we have encountered people in person who are outright racist and believe that it's okay. (Keep in mind that she's from Chicago and I'm from Kentucky, so racism isn't just a "Southern" thing.) My friend who says racism is practically over (let's call him Sam for the rest of this story) said that he's never encountered anyone like that. (Keep in mind that he's white/white-passing). This is how white privilege works. He has rarely if not never had conversations about race because racism isn't a white issue.
Even if people aren't upfront with their prejudices, it doesn't make them any less racist. People can be racist through their microaggressions. Microaggressions are negative passive actions or remarks regarding race made towards people of color. An example of a microaggression I've gotten repeatedly is "You're smart for a black boy/person!" or "You're so well spoken!" Microaggressions may seem harmless at face-level, but they do carry racist stigmas that people may or may not intend.
Check out the video below to understand microaggressions more!
In the conversations I've had on racism and how it exists today, white people tend to shut it down with the fact that we have a black president or the fact that many black people are successful today. We really can't deny how having our first black president is a big step in progress, but we can't just pretend that racism magically went away as soon as we have a black person in office. I also get a lot of references to Martin Luther King Jr. While he has made strides for the black community, racism did not go away but it changed. This is what I like to call post-MLK racism, which includes microaggressions. What changed is that now it isn't socially acceptable to be racist, but subtle racist jokes are still funny, as well as the aggressive white hoods of the KKK became clever business suits and blue uniforms.
If racism is over, then how come segregation still exists today? (And don't say it doesn't, because I'm 95% sure that you have used "the ghetto" to refer to a lower-income black neighborhood.) If it's over, then how come black people are five times more likely and Latinx people are twice as likely to be targeted by the police than white people? If it doesn't exist, then how come Trump uses a highly racist rhetoric against groups of people the color of a brown paper bag and darker? Just because you, a white person, doesn't see it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist for the rest of us.
