Thanks for this very honest article. I agree that racism doesn’t require malice, which seems to be a sticking point for a number of commenters. Neither does sexism. All they require is a belief that things are fine just as they are and that no one should attempt to disrupt what’s clearly divinely ordained.
I also think that when malice occurs, it’s sparked by fear. Fear shows up when things start to change, when the “divine order” gets disrupted, when uncertainty about an uncharted future emerges. The birth of the KKK from the chaos of the post-Civil War South demonstrates that.
I recognize that the above is perhaps simplistic, but I’m not writing a book or article here. I simply want to state that we can’t unpack any form of prejudice without looking at the emotions that fuel it.
