Unconscious Racism

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Racism is a form of prejudice and/or discrimination based on physical differences . According to that definition, individuals are consciously aware of what they are doing to be considered non-racist. In fact, if a business refuses to serve African American without a valid reason, people will think it is racist. Whites use the N Word to identify blacks and call them out in the street such as Hey Niggers! Niggas or Niggaz is also racist . However, there is a type of prejudice that people are unaware of; they tend to act it out with their unconscious minds and ignore the effect of the racism. Therefore, it is considered as unconscious racism. The historical origins of unconscious racism can be traced back to the slave trade in New Spain. The Spanish…show more content…
According to Magali M. Carrera, in the late 1600s, European began to categorize humans on physical grounds into European, Chinese, Lapps and Black Africans groups. Soon a hierarchy of these groups came to be accepted, with the White European on the top; the Black African was usually relegated to the bottom because of the skin color and primitive cultures . With that concept, the European create their rules to use slaves and rules to marry the Black blood (African American). For example, if a White marries an African American slave, their children would never be considered to be pure Whites. They will automatically become slaves as one of their parent . As a result, those evidences could have led to the belief that Europeans are superior over African Americans, since the mixing races make the bloodline impure. Another example that played a role in reinforcing unconscious racism is Henrietta Lacks story back in the 1951. Because she is a poor African American woman, the Hopkins doctor did not want to provide any treatments to save her life from cancer . And in contrast, without her permission, they took and cultured her cells to earn a huge profit. Henrietta Lacks could only survive if she had the power to support herself. It is the inequalities to justify between whites and African Americans. And no doubt, it is a form of unconscious…show more content…
This is a prime example of how unconscious racism is present in today’s society. President Obama had to force himself to release his personal documents in an effort to prove to the American people that he was indeed a citizen because multitudes of people, including influential people such as Donald Trump had their doubts. Still, many Americans do not believe the truth; they listed him as a non-citizen without a valid reason. It is hard to fix their unconscious minds, which automatically separated president Barack Obama from being a real citizen. People that participated in the survey could not explain the reason why they think that his provided documents must have been forged. In additional information, the article “Birth Certificates and Unconscious Racism” has also mentioned about “Racism that transcends wealth and position”. “Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested in his own home, despite having already shown his identification to the arresting officer” . Why did the Cambridge police act stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were their own home? Blacks are usually being suspect and treated unfairly . However, that was just an unconscious act of Whites without even realizing

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