[WS:] What this story illustrates is stereotyping - which is an integral part of human cognition. We all do it in all social situations. It is hard wired in our brains. It is not possible to get rid of it without lobotomizing people.
Stereotype is a cognitive response to emotional reaction to something that may pose a threat 9which is pretty much reflexive). It is basically an attempt to reason in a situation when sufficient information is not available. You see a members of an ethnic group that is known to have a higher probability of committing a crime. Your automatic emotional response is fear, which your "thinking brain" (cortex) is trying to resolve by utilizing information available to it. An in most situations there is insufficient information - since we have no way of knowing who the person in question is and what his intentions are. Consequently the brain may use the only information available - memorized hearsay - and that often leads to the formation of a stereotype.
Racism is a very different cognitive phenomenon - it is a conscious belief
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CB: Sociological and other social scientific thinking of the present would benefit from some return to emphasis on unconscious processes, as in the 20th Century. Racism is both conscious and unconscious. The stereotype process is a locus of significant unconscious racism. The "greatest amount" of racism is unconscious. Most racism is not consciously vicious. Klu Klux Klanners and Nazis are a tiny, tiny minority. Imus didn't and still doesn't think he is a racist. The character/comedian from the Seinfeld show, who burst out with racist rejoinders to a heckler, was unconsciously racist. He didn't consider himself a racist. He didn't seem racist up until that incident. But even Imus and the other guy's unconscious racism is of a minority type. Most unconscious of racist influence on them don't have extraordinary outbursts where their unconsious racism becomes obvious to many. And again, are not vicious.
Liberal and paternalistic racism or chauvinism are significantly unconscious phenomenon. Imus insists he gives to charities that benefit Black children, and by carrying out this part of the White Man's Burden , he demonstrates that he is not a racist. And he is half right.
Then in there is a sort of collective unconsciousness of racism today ,whereby there is a lot of collective denial that racism is a serious social factor. Thus, "racialism" or other neutralizing terms have been substituted for "racism" and "racist" in the mass media discourse.
In general, we should revisit unconscious phenomena in a number of socio-political areas.
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