Big Think: Subconscious Racism

Ah...racism.
Well, there was a time when racism was necessary. Back in the Roman days, if a six-foot-two guy with a bushy blond beard wearing a conical helm decked out with antlers and owl-esque eyeholes came knocking at your door, you knew not to open the door to him and his legion of similarly-clad warriors, because they were a bunch of barbarians. Back then, you were suspicious of anybody who came from outside your village, kingdom, religion or ethnicity, because there was a very real chance that they might want to kill you, rape your wife and burn your land. But racism, a phenomenon that should have died out long ago, has lingered on to this day...and this video explains why.
http://bigthink.com/floating-university/why-were-at-war-with-ourselves-understanding-racism-as-an-introduction-to-psychology
For those of you who don't have the three minutes to watch the video, it explains how we're all subconsciously racist. Even those of us who would say we aren't bigots subconsciously judge people of different races, religions, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and ideologies, generally stemming from a lack of experience. Basically, the people you grow up around provide your subconscious with a baseline for trust. As the video shows, having more experience with a specific group helps eliminate subconscious stereotypes you may have about that group. For example, my overwhelmingly positive view of the Irish people stems from my friends and a very, very large extended family. If I had Italian or Russian family, I would be more inclined to trust Italians or Russians. However, owing to a lack of experience with people from Italy or Russia, I'm much more inclined to trust the Irish people, and I have a few subconscious stereotypes about...well, all the non-Irish nationalities. I'm sure most people in England subconsciously see the Irish as loud, obnoxious, violent individuals, because they've been raised during (or by those who remember) the Troubles. And the video is right - the only way to remove the stereotypes from your subconscious is experience. Because, when you get down to it, the percent of law-abiding African-Americans in the black population is just about equal to the white population, not all Frenchmen are obnoxious smokers, and the vast majority of Canadians don't say "Eh." But somebody might have forgotten to mention that to your subconscious.