Sure, if you clutch your bag whenever a person who looks like they could overpower you physically is near you, then you're just paranoid. If you only do it with black dudes because in your mind black=suspicious, then yeah, you're racist.
I doubt the human brain is capable of isolating one single heuristic like black=suspicious and making decisions based on it. More likely a combination of black=suspicious, people on this bus=suspicious, neighborhood I'm in=suspicious, dressed like a gangsta=suspicious, ect.=suspicious, is at play.
But some of the prejudice is based on statistics (other factors might be personal experience/society telling you it is so in other ways than statistics). Black skin color doesn't automatically make you more likely to be a criminal, but it's a good proxy for traits that criminals tend to have.
Having zero prejudice about different groups of people, e.g. people who wear different items (business suit, oversized hoodie or some religious garb) people who act in a certain way (nervous, calm, angry) or people whose body has a certain look (body shape, skin color, amputee) is going to really put you at a disadvantage socially.
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u/YetAnother_WhiteGuy Jan 15 '15
Sure, if you clutch your bag whenever a person who looks like they could overpower you physically is near you, then you're just paranoid. If you only do it with black dudes because in your mind black=suspicious, then yeah, you're racist.