Why White People Don't See Racism: Explaining the disconnect between Black and white Americans

Next week I will participate in a racial discrimination hearing against a Manhattan night club that frisked and searched me when I attended on a "Black night" but does not search patrons on mostly white nights.

Last week, I was accused of stealing an iPhone by a white woman in Miami who came up to me and asked if she could search my pockets to find it. It was not a joke or a pickup line.

And just last month, I had to pull out my own iPhone to photograph and report the license plate and medallion number of a taxicab driver in New York's Union Square who refused to pick me up and then drove across the street to pick up a white customer seconds later.

For many African-Americans, I suspect these stories aren't entirely surprising. As President Obama said last week, racism is a daily part of our lives. Like air and water, it's part of the environment in which we live. Yet far too many white Americans still live in denial about its persistence.

That's the conclusion to be drawn not just from anecdotal experience but from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Wednesday that showed a vast disparity between white and Black perceptions on race relations. The poll, conducted after George Zimmerman was acquitted for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, found that 52 percent of whites think race relations are "good" in America while 58 percent of Blacks describe race relations as "bad."

The new poll numbers follow similar results from a Washington Post-ABC News poll two days earlier. In that poll, 86 percent of Blacks disapproved of the Zimmerman verdict while only 31 percent of whites felt that way. Even more disappointing is that 86 percent of African-Americans say Blacks and other minorities do not get equal treatment under the law, while only 41 percent of whites think that's true.

Years ago, I heard a law professor explain what I call the "magnet analogy." Remember those big red and silver horseshoe magnets from high school? Now imagine you had to walk around the world with a huge horseshoe magnet on your neck. Aside from the heavy burden of carrying the extra weight, you'd quickly see the world a lot differently from those without the magnet.

The first thing you'd notice – there's a lot of metal in the world. Keys, coins, cell phones, even appliances would suddenly get a lot more of your attention. Why? Because the magnet attracts them. But those without the magnet would continue to remain oblivious to the metal assault on your body.

That's the experience for African-Americans every day. We're surrounding and inundated by the metal of racism while those who do not carry the magnet of Blackness remain oblivious to our experience. To them, racism is a thing of the past.

The problem is we need to recognize how new and subtle forms of race bias have replaced the old overt acts of racial discrimination. Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion explains how brain science has identified subconscious racial bias taking place in "nanoseconds" at subliminal levels. "There's something that police officers and college students and George Zimmerman all have in common," she told MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry recently. "And that is that they're more likely to shoot a black man with a wallet than they are to shoot a white man with a gun." They call it "shooter bias."

Unfortunately, our laws and our public discourse haven't kept up with the changes in racism. Many whites are still stuck in the 1960s image of overt bigotry, of Klansmen burning crosses and segregationist governors blocking schoolhouse doors. They may know a parent or a grandparent who still uses the N-word, but as long as they refrain from using it themselves then they can't possibly be racist, they think.

But Paula Deen aside, modern racism isn't really about the N-word. New code words like Detroit, Chicago, "Stand Your Ground," voter ID, food stamps and welfare now carry the same impact with dog whistle messages too subtle to be reported by many in the media. This seemingly race-neutral language allows the majority to engage in public discourse under the mantle of innocence and thus dismiss the vestiges and effects of hundreds of years of legally sanctioned white supremacy. The only racists in this vision are the people who complain about racism.

That's why the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act last month and argued it had outlived its utility. And that's why George Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara last week told Fox News's Sean Hannity that his client, a known killer with a long arrest record, was just a "meek, mild guy without a racist bone in his body."

If you kill an unarmed Black boy or fan the flames of white resentment on talk radio, you're a "patriot." But if you help the family of the young Black boy who was killed, you're a "race hustler." To be white in America allows you the freedom to remain oblivious to these distinctions.

Yes, this dialogue must be a two-way conversation. But until white Americans examine their own racial privilege and open their eyes to the experience of Black Americans, they'll never notice the magnet we carry every day.

Keith Boykin is a New York Times best-selling author and former White House aide to President Clinton. He attended Harvard Law School with President Barack Obama and currently serves as a TV political commentator. He writes political commentary for BET.com each week.

May I suggest blacks have the discussion amongst themselves, and when they get things figured out, bring the discussion to the rest of us. Why would a cab driver turn down one fare to pick up another? Before yelling racism, think safety. Who is more likely to mug that cab driver, or stiff him on a fare? I bet the answer is black guys. The woman at the airport may have been a racist, or she may have been robbed by a black guy. Before thinking racism, ask why blacks get searched more at clubs, or why people suspect black people of committing crimes, or why a cabby would prefer a white fare.

Black men commit more crimes than any other race of men. It has become part of the black culture, with the militant hip hop and rap generation, with flash mobs, gangs and the whole black gangsta’ mentality. It’s a black problem. Deal with it instead of glamorizing it. While you’re at it, ask what is to be gained by all the hatred and militance directed at white people who would like nothing more than to live in peace with black people. If blacks work on their problems, they will find most whites don’t have a problem with them, racial or otherwise.

Keith, if you are a member of the “Black Community,” then you are going to be lumped in with ALL blacks, just like you lumped all white people together by saying “Why White People Don’t See Racism.”

It is unfortunate that you are an upstanding citizen who is treated like a potential trouble maker or even criminal. My suggestion is that you need to get some REAL black leaders who will stand up for a moral and civilized culture and who will gather good black folks together to push this agenda in the family, in the neighborhood, in the schools, and try to re-establish the black church as well.

Want to demonstrate? Got after Al Sharpton who is an evil person. The same for Jesse Jackson. The same for all the race pimps. You need leaders who teach your people the right way to live, to take care of themselves and their family, NOT to depend on the “government.” You know that you and I pay taxes to take care of some real losers. Why not teach those losers and show them how to make a positive contribution to the world.

If Dr. Ben Carson’s mother could produce a famous surgeon, surely other black mothers (and the rare black fathers who care) can do at least a fraction of that. Make your job NOT to get drunk or stoned, but to teach your kids to read and do math and to be curious about how the world works.

If you want to be treated the same way you see white people treated, you have to go after the thugs, drug dealers, gang members, thieves, vandals, muggers, rapists, etc. You have to fearlessly do something about it.

Can you REALLY blame white people for being wary of blacks when the news is full of black-on-white crime. Am I supposed to deny the danger of black youths and endanger by life or am I going to be very careful around them? Should I fearlessly walked through a group of 10 black kids hanging out or should I avoid them? If I am wary and want to be sure who I am dealing with, I will be called a racist. If not, I may be robbed, beaten, killed, or raped if I am a woman.

We treat you differently because your race causes a LOT of the trouble. You may have a GOOD culture as your foundation, but a LOT of your fellow blacks have BAD foundation. If you want to be treated better, you have to fix those in your race who have that BAD culture.

You have to continually pound on it. You might start with the music. Teach your kids that nigga, cop killa, talking down on woman, get whitey, smash mobs, etc. are TOTALLY unacceptable. Maybe you need to establish some of your own neighborhood watches like white people have been doing.

You are in a war with people from a BAD culture. If you don’t want to clean it up, white people certainly aren’t going to be interested in catching the flack of doing it for you. The simplest thing for us to do is avoid ALL of you and move away, since you aren’t doing anything about your problem. Therefore, how can we trust or respect ANY black person we do not personally know?

Even a lot of your athletes and entertainers are dangerous people.

I could go on all day, but I’ve got things to do. I’m working on my yard to improve it for myself and my neighbors. That is something else you could teach other blacks. Don’t sit on your porch. Clean up the shit people throw on the street. Plant some grass and flowers. Mow your lawn. Show some pride where you live even if you don’t own it.

I hope you get the idea. Clean the BAD black culture out and you will be respected.

Is there a BAD white culture? Certainly, but nowhere near in the percentages there is a BAD black culture. When we have BAD white people, we take care of it or we call the cops and don’t have a riot if they have to kill one or two of the bastards.

Am I lecturing you? You’re damn right I am and you know what I said is true. What I don’t like is being lectured by black people for being wary of them because of the way they have let their culture degenerate. That’s not my fault. I didn’t vote for the democrats who helped ruin your families and culture.

Show some more courage, man! Take on the racists in your race and teach them WHY a lot of white people are afraid of them and how to fix the problem.

Drop your stupid law suit and understand why you were treated differently from the whites and try to honestly tell me that if you were the white guy, you wouldn’t do the same thing he did. Blame the BAD actors of your race who are ruining things for you. Sue THEM.

White people don’t see racism? The hell we don’t. White people get mugged and get their asses kicked by black racists on a regular basis, but we have learned to avoid it by avoiding black people we don’t know as much as possible because you GOOD black folks don’t do anything about black on white crime. What do you think about the knock-out game? Fun thing for black kids to do? Where the hell are you LEADERS? You have no leaders. Maybe you could step up and get involved.

Is that racist? No, it is closer to prejudging and profiling for one’s own protection. Just as Jesse Jackson admitted doing himself. Just as you do when you are walking down the street at night, no matter what race the other person is. Is that a wrong thing to do or is it a wise thing to do?

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These White People didn't see Racism either.