Covert racism

Covert racism is a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. Concealed in the fabric of society, covert racism discriminates against individuals through often unnoticeable or seemingly passive methods. Covert, racially biased decisions are often hidden or rationalized with an explanation that society is more willing to accept. These racial biases cause a variety of problems that work to empower the suppressors while diminishing the rights and powers of the oppressed. Covert racism often works subliminally, and often much of the discrimination is being done subconsciously.

George M. Fredrickson states that racism possesses a generative force more powerful than mere class or caste self-interest alone and is suspicious of arguments that discount matters of ideology, thought and culture and overvalue those of instinct and habit. Others believe that racism in all its forms are part of the human psyche, as xenophobia, or fear of those outside the group, is a primordial attitude deeply embedded in human history.

One popular theory on race, promulgated by Judge Tucker, posits that there exists natural, physical divisions among humans that are hereditary, reflected in morphology, and roughly but correctly captured by terms like "black", "white", and "Asian" (or "Negroid", "Caucasoid", and "Mongoloid"). Some argue this theory serves to suppress and exploit the outgroup or "racialized others".

Covert racism, sometimes called "color blind" racism, is less obvious than overt racism. This "laissez-faire" form of racism is not governmentally sanctioned like the overt Jim Crow laws of the 1950s, and it is not always obvious. Covert racism comes in many forms including unnecessary politeness to a racial group, or the use of political correctness.

With a strong prevailing history of slavery in the United States, racism has always been an issue. The enslavement of millions of Africans along with the huge influx of immigrants throughout its history has allowed great diversity, but has created racial segregation. With the abolition of slavery, different forms of segregation were implemented, including Jim Crow laws and the later American political structures which invited extreme segregation within cities and the suburbanisation of the white working and middle class. As overt and obvious racial discrimination became illegal and less and less apparent, the idea that the nation was homogenizing became popular. It was thought that as the U.S. accepted more immigrants from different cultures a sort of "melting pot" would occur and unify everyone under one creed. Along with this, ideologies formed that every group of immigrants goes through the same discrimination. Groups were thought to eventually assimilate, but racism remained and is still present today.

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