Brittany Amerson Clif Stratton Racial Inequality Integrative Essay 10/22/12

The Roots of Unconscious Racism

Racism. The concept that some peoples are prejudice to others simply based off of their racial background. Individuals are aware of racism when they see it; if a restaurant owner refuses to provide service to an African American without a valid reason the idea that the owner is racist comes to mind. New Yorkers making remarks about turbans and terrorism when they see a Muslim walk by is racist. However a lesser-known evil is unconscious racism, a type of prejudice that even the perpetrator can be unaware of at times, as an individuals unconscious mind has preconceived notions about other races, specifically about African Americans. Since the person engaging in it rarely notices unconscious racism, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why that individual feels that way and has those beliefs. However, the roots of unconscious racism can be traced back before the slave trade to New Spain, as believing African Americans have impure blood planted the idea in early European-Americans that whites reign supreme over blacks, consequently evolving into unconscious racism. The belief that the African American race is considered to be inferior can be traced all the way back to New Spain. There was a caste system in place that sorted out and classified the people that populated the area. Spaniards that had relationships with Native Americans produced children that were known as mestizos, mestizos and

Spaniards were known as castizos, and so on and so forth.1 This classification broke down all the possible combinations of people, and even mentioned that eventually if a Spaniard produced children with someone far enough down the line of Spaniard and Indian blood, the child would be considered a Spaniard, though technically the child contains Indian blood. However this concept did not apply to children born of Spaniard and African Americans, as those contaminated with the Negro strain we may give, overall, the name of mulatos, without specifying the degree or the distance direct or indirect from the Negro root or stock. 2 The concept that eventually a Spaniard and an African American could continue having children and would one day produce a pure Spaniard does not apply. The Spaniards saw the Negros as having impure blood, and therefore any race that mixes with Negro blood will never be pure again, the children will always be labeled as mulatto. This concept could have led to the belief that European Americans are superior over African Americans, since basically mixing races with them make the bloodline impure. Another idea that played a role in reinforcing unconscious racism is Social Darwinism, the idea that the survival of the fittest can be applicable to social polices that dont separate those who can support themselves and people who are unable to support themselves.2 Many Americans applied this to justify the inequalities between whites and African Americans. Rather than face the blatant racism, many chose to turn the other

Sean Galvin, A Description of the Kingdom of New Spain (San Francisco: John Howell Books, 1972), 1921.
2

"Fatal Impact," Racism: A History, BBC Four (London, UK: March 28, 2007).

cheek, as it is easy to dismiss a problem especially if you are not the victim.3 Applying Social Darwinism to justify the treatment of African Americans during the early 20th century (until it became a concept associated with the Nazis and the extermination of the Jews) help reinforce the subconscious thought that Caucasians were superior and were preferred over African Americans. With children growing up in an environment full of Jim Crow laws and segregation, it is no surprise that Caucasians engage in unconscious racism, as when you are continually exposed to an idea over and over again and it is the norm of the time, it makes sense to believe what they were being exposed to. A survey conducted by Survey USA found that twenty-eight percent of people believed that President Obamas birth certificate was forged, or that they still had doubts about his citizenship. 4 This is a prime example of how unconscious racism is present in todays society. President Obama was pressured into releasing 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. 5 Even with physical proof, many Americans still were not convinced, and with no valid reason as to why they believed he was not a citizen. It was just how they felt. People that participated in the survey could not explain why they thought Obama was not a citizen; they just had a gut feeling that his papers must have been forged. The traditional racism that everyone is familiar with is easy to pick out, making derogatory comments to someone who doesnt share the same skin tone, denying a job to someone who has all the necessary qualifications but isnt the same race as the employer
3

Paul Rosenburg, Birth Certificates and Unconscious Racism, Aljazeera May 14, 2011, accessed October 19, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201151312746772677.html 4 Rosenburg, Birth Certificates and Unconscious Racism. 5 Rosenburg, Birth Certificates and Unconscious Racism.

are all modern examples of what racism consists of. However unconscious racism, which far more people engage in, usually goes unnoticed, as the person engaging in it does not realize they are doing so. Though it goes unnoticed, its effects are prevalent in todays society as incidents such as the question of Obamas citizenship happen more often than not, and this along many other examples can be attributed to the concept that white people were superior.