Examples Of Unconscious Racism

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Racial Inequality
Unconscious racism has been prevalent throughout the world’s history. While the exact date of its origin is disagreed upon, there is evidence of unconscious racism tracing back to the beginning of this nations youth. The notion of Varna or casta, as used in the oldest Indian text, the Veda, does carry implications of color, and adds plausibility to the idea of some form of race consciousness. From the days of Casta paintings to modern day society, unconscious racism has held a large part of our nations history and while at a smaller scale it still does to this day. The historical origins of unconscious racism are abundant in the fact that this type of racism was prominent in the early stages of this nations beginning. One form of this that was very popular amongst colonial elites in the 17th century was casta paintings. These paintings
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Today it is practiced in a more secretive and hidden manor. In an article written by Paul Rosenberg in 2011 he writes about ways that people are using unconscious racism in todays world. One example of this is with the criminal justice system. In a book written David Cole called “race and Class in the American Justice System” Cole found some key findings. Police are more likely to stop or pull over a person of minority then they are to stop a white person. While there is no real reason for this, the idea that somehow people of minority are more likely to commit illegal acts, and are regarded with suspicion is a strong example of unconscious racism. Rosenberg also points to another case where two separate drunk driving cases which were identical in all respects except the races of the defendants were treated unfairly completely dependent on the race of the individual. While the white drunk driver was shown empathy where as the black driver was given harsher bail