Racism Resides Within All White People--or does it?

There are a few very interesting points brought up in this article. First, I think the analogy made between the words "racist" and "cancer" is absolutely true. When a person is given the news that they have cancer, a certain degree of denial or resistance sets in. The same is true when a person is called a racist (assuming they do not wish to be a racist). However, I would assume that the average person would not view their implicit attitudes as racist, and they would view racism as a more blatant, or explicit, concept. This is in part due to the fact that some people do not recognize their implicit prejudices. But just because a person does not explicitly say something racist or explicitly discriminate against other races doesn't mean they do not have certain prejudices. I think the author of this articles makes a good point in saying that a lot of people see racism as an all or nothing concept. To me, this is simply not true. Yes, there are those who would stand up and admit their racism to others no matter who is listening. But there are those who may not even recognize their own implicit attitudes (this is where aversive racism would come up). And then there are people who recognize their subtle prejudice attitudes, but cognitively attempt to avoid showing any signs of these attitudes. So I think I understand where the author is coming from when she says that "all white people are racist (or have "internalized racial biases" as she puts it). But this is not grounds for outrage, it just happens to be true that when we see someone of a different race or ethnicity, that is the first thing we see. It is hard for me to deny the evolutionary perspective when we talk about racism. It would appear to me that it is completely natural for people to see race first before they see anything else in people. Race is just too salient of a physical characteristic to ignore. If you throw that in with the perpetuating stereotypes and beliefs about group differences that we are consistently bombarded with through human interaction, friends, family, media exposure, personal experience, etc. and you have yourself one hell of a schema regarding human interaction and individual behavior.