Dear “Colorblind” people,

[Jim Lane]

27. A few weeks ago I got flamed here for discussing my own racial prejudice.

I thought it was fairly obvious that there's some prejudice even among those of us who hold racial equality as an ideal. In discussing prejudice (in a thread that started out being about homophobia), I wrote in part:

Speaking of blacks, I, as a white person, do detect in myself some racial stereotyping. I blame it on the culture in which I was raised, but the sad fact is that I have at least a bit of a tendency to consider blacks to be less intelligent. That’s not sensible, on my part, but there it is. Now, is my admission to that failing a racist statement? I say it isn’t.

(My post at http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062#post67 and full thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062 for people with a lot of time on their hands)

To my surprise, though, most of the comments there were hostile. At least one person alerted my post as "extremely racist" (http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062#post141).

I'm not sure you're right that everyone is racist. There are probably some exceptions. I do completely agree with you that the real question is "whether you question your preconceptions or blindly let them rule your actions." To that end, admitting to your preconceptions makes it less likely that they will rule or even affect your actions.