Religious believers are about 90% of Americans. They are mostly Christian and Jewish denominations that believe one god created a unified human race descended from one couple.  Scientists support a similar secular finding that all humans descend from common African ancestors. So how does the idea of race—that the human species is divided into innately different racial groups—survive in society?

One reason for this survival is that supporters of racism changed strategy after twenty years of successful attacks by the Civil Rights Movement ending in the 1970s. They camouflaged and hid it in the open. At least they used a new tactic that permitted most Americans to convince themselves they no longer saw racism in social policy.

It was an easy strategy. The idea of ethnicity—a group connected by common cultural, linguistic, religious, or territorial traits—is a social reality and a morally acceptable concept. So, they presented racism as another form of ethnicity with a race-based culture, language and religious traits.  However, society only separates one group of Americans from the main culture into a separate racial group based on their physical traits.

Ironically, it was civil rights activists who motivated the fight against racial segregation centered on black racial pride that made possible this new form of racism hidden in the open.  The supporters of racism support ideas of a separate black racial culture and a separate black reasoning process. They helped to establish African-American as a raced-based ethnic group.

Most Americans mistakenly believed that racist groups changed to beliefs of equality when they willingly accepted and supported African-American as a racial group with ethnic characteristics. The opposite was true. They supported this new label because they understood what few other Americans saw or were willing to acknowledge. America racist social policy continues as long as it places some citizens in a disadvantaged social class because of their skin color.  Changing how many human rights and the amount of social opportunity allowed members in this social class may affect the quality of their lives, but it does not change the racist nature of the social policy.

America's social policy restricts the human rights and economic opportunity for people in its black disadvantaged social class the same now as it did 400 years ago. The separation and the relative power relationships between the white and black social classes remain the same.  All that changed was the amount of human rights and economic opportunity members in the black group enjoy.

They advanced from enslavement with no economic opportunity to the status of overtly racial segregated with restricted human rights and economic opportunity. Next, they forced change that advanced them from overt segregation into a social policy of racial segregation hidden in plain sight with more opportunity. It is no coincidence the size of the black group has not expanded relative to the white group, that their incarceration rate increased after 1960s Civil Rights Movement success against overt racism, and that they lose ground educationally and economically relative to the white group.

Society continues to offer a different and poorer educational environment in schools attended predominately by students from the African-American or Latino social classes. This is an example of racism hidden in plain view that hinders members in those social classes from improving their economic situation. School officials rationalize they use difference teaching methods out of  respect for the culturally diverse ways students learn. Probably they are sincere, but this reasoning only makes senses to people in a racist society. The rules of mathematics, physics and chemistry worked the same everywhere and for everyone. Therefore this deviation from normal teaching disciplines creates unequal learning opportunity for those students.

Lax enforcement of discipline rules in schools attended mostly by pupils in disadvantaged social classes creates much inequality. Mostly, they use methods that permit a few misbehaving students to reduce the learning opportunity for the group.  

The Vallejo School District restricted all high school students on campus because of discipline problems. In addition, it used class time to instruct all students about proper discipline and how to stand up to bullies.

This policy permits a few misbehaving students more opportunity to disrupt classes. It forces discipline training on well-behaved students robbing them of needed class instruction in other subjects. Making them responsible for handling bullies increases the stress of attending school and opens them to injury. Not all bullies are cowards as many people believe.

A national policy of permissive racism affects reasoning in subtle ways.