The Full quote
Notwithstanding that the public ideology has become nonracist, the culture continues to teach racism. The manifestations of racial ste- reotypes pervade our media and language. Racism is reflected in the complex set of individual and collective choices that make our schools, our neighborhoods, our work places, and our lives racially segregated.
Racism today paradoxically is both “irrational and normal. '' Racism is at once inconsistent with the dominant public ideology and is embraced by each of us, albeit for most of us at the unconscious level. This paradox of irrationality and normalcy is part of the reason for the unconscious nature of the racism. When our culture teaches us to be racist and our ideology teaches us that racism is evil, we respond by excluding the forbidden lesson from our consciousness.
Racism today paradoxically is both “irrational and normal. '' Racism is at once inconsistent with the dominant public ideology and is embraced by each of us, albeit for most of us at the unconscious level. This paradox of irrationality and normalcy is part of the reason for the unconscious nature of the racism. When our culture teaches us to be racist and our ideology teaches us that racism is evil, we respond by excluding the forbidden lesson from our consciousness.