Once it takes root it permeates not just into our minds but into our governments, judiciaries, economies, media and education systems. It carries on relentlessly trailing disadvantage in its wake. Turning the screw Consider how racism lives on in former colonies. The South American continent, especially Latin America, is a case in point. Black descendants of African slaves are on the lowest rungs of social and economic hierarchies, often segregated in distinct geographical areas.
Blacks can only move up in society through a process called blanqueamiento or 'whitening'.
This involves black people internalizing the racism they experience and marrying 'up' along the colour line so that their children may have a better chance. But it doesn't end with colour. By a perverse misreading of the Bible it is claimed that the Jews are a distinct race because of their 'tainted' blood. Such theories caused widespread persecution of Jews in medieval Europe. The Nazis killed six million Jews in a racial holocaust when the real issue was German nationalism.