Destroy the Myth
Somebody showed me a powerful clip of a southern white man explaining institutional racism, based on a letter he got from someone trying to understand it. The letter said: I live on a 450 acre farm. The black people I know are good, hardworking people. I don't even think of them as black. I don't understand what institutional racism is, I just don't see it.
Here was the explanation, from one white person to another. If you can see, with your own eyes and experience, good hardworking black people, and yet, you are so convinced that black people are not good and not hardworking, that these can't be normal black people, then you have bought into the stereotype perpetuated by institutional racism.
In America, there was a need to use black people as chattel. And a need for white Americans to all go along with it. So, a myth was perpetuated that black people were inferior to, less than, not as smart as white people. The stereotype was so pervasive and complete, that every time white people encountered black people who were their equals, or smarter, better, harder-working, etc., the white people assumed that these black people were exceptions, instead of reshaping their views about black people in general ... and realizing that they had been conned.
.
Because really, that's what the stereotype is. It's a con. It's a myth that allows white people to justify treating black people poorly. And it's institutional. White people are so convinced that black people are inferior that when two EQUAL candidates come along, the white one is almost always chosen, even by someone who doesn't think he or she is biased. White people are SO convinced that black people are inferior that they justify racial profiling. White people are SO convinced that black people are inferior that they justify unfair sentencing. White people are SO convinced that black people are inferior that they don't want black people in their neighborhoods, in their pools, in their schools, in their churches. They are convinced that an influx of black people leads to an influx of crime.
.
And here's the thing. Having a black president has not changed white people's minds. He's still "an exception". Doctor Huxtable didn't change white people's minds. "He's an exception". And why is this? Because the American media and entertainment industries are so committed to the negative stereotype that they reinforce it at every opportunity, glorifying and overemphasizing negative news and images and underrepresenting positive news and images.
.
In some pockets of America, there are white people who have never met a black person. They have nothing to go on except media and the entertainment industry. And they are convinced that black people are horrible/inferior/violent. You could parade normal black people in front of them all day and it wouldn't change their minds.
.
I am convinced that only white people can convince other white people that they have been conned. And only when huge numbers of white people wake up to the con and reject it will we see a change in policing, sentencing, banking, housing, media and entertainment, and every other circumstance where black people are STILL discriminated against, because ordinary white Americans keep buying into a false image.
It is sad. As black people, there is next to nothing we can do to prove that we are equal in every way. We had a wake-up call with George Floyd and people still found reasons to justify the policeman's actions and suggest that Floyd deserved his death. Its that inferiority myth. That we are less, our deaths are not meaningful.
So, white people, please speak up. Please speak out. Please say: I know black people and the stereotypes about inferiority and laziness and violence are WRONG. The black people I know are NOT EXCEPTIONAL. They are normal every day people. Living in a world where everyone makes negative assumptions about them as soon as they walk in the door. No one should have to live with that burden. So the sooner we all tear it down, the better our country will be.
= new reply since forum marked as read
What he's really saying is that he doesn't think of these particular people as black because they're such "good, hardworking people." The unspoken truth is that if they were not so "good" and "hardworking," he would have no trouble thinking of them as black.
If that was pointed it out to him, I'm sure he would deny it, but I'm also sure it's true. It's the kind of thing that many white people feel, consciously or unconsciously. But to quote Dr. Phil, you can't change what you don't acknowledge, and I learned a long time ago that a big part of the fight against racism for me, as a white person, is recognizing and acknowledging the unconscious attitudes that we ALL have absorbed from living in this racist society. It's not a pleasant thing to contemplate in oneself, but it's vitally important to recognize and acknowledge these things, because we can't fully eliminate them until we do.
Some of us are way ahead of this man, but we all have work to do, regardless. Part of that work, imo, is recognizing why a statement like "I don't even think of them as black" is cringeworthy. Because it is!
And yet people like this man make a statement like that (or my other favorite, "I don't see color" ) and think they are saying something praiseworthy about themselves! 
How much better would it be to see people as human beings rather than stereotypes? What's wrong with seeing each other as we are, black, white, Asian, indigenous or whatever, WITHOUT automatically attributing a specific set of characteristics to each of those designations? How about we look at all the beautiful diversity of the human race as part of what makes each of us who we are, instead of pretending it's possible (much less desirable) to not notice it?
We all need to examine our own behaviors and attitudes and strive to adjust them towards justice and equity in treatment to all.
Hell, I'm 69, wasn't raised in a particuarly racist area, and I strive for that every day. After all, looking back, where I lived was more 'segregated' than I thought. Not having a lot of black folks around was the norm, and it took me a few years after I attained adulthood to realize that that wasn't 'normal.' Normal, that we want to get to, is for people to live in harmony and mutual respect regardless of skin color or ethnicity. Long way to go with that one.
to pick your own cotton.