e. A similar trend can be shown for support for the idea of integrated schools. In the mid-1950s, integration of the schools was supported by less than one-half of white Americans, but by the end of the 1960s it was approved by two-thirds or more of the same population (Sniderman and Hagen, 1985, 1-20).
Though the overt racism of the past has become much less acceptable (though it has not disappeared altogether), the prevalent form of racism today is institutional racism. The concept of institutional racism was first discussed systematically by Charles Hamilton and Stokeley Carmichael in the 1960s. In this conception, the authors contrasted individual racism, illustrated by a small band of white terrorists bombing a church, with institutional racism, illustrated by the practices leading to many black children dying each year because of inadequate food, medical facilities, and shelter (Feagin and Feagin, 1986, 12-13).
The idea of institutional racism helps explain how racial discrimination can be continued in a society which fundamentally claims to reject racism. Some theorists believe that white liberals have learned to pay lip-service to a norm of equality while remaining fundamentally racist in their feelings:
The key feature of racism does not lie in its rhetorical expression but in its central role in maintaining the material advantage of White people over Black people (Howitt and Owusu-Bempah, 1990, 883).
A study of the issue produces evidence of institutionalized racism in American society at many levels. It can be shown that black and white have radically different experiences in the labor market. Black applicants are more likely than whites to receive replies which offer no work and no encouragement, and this is revealing because it shows that different assumptions are being made about black and white applicants for voluntary work. In effect, though, it is impossible to tell when someone answers in a raci...