Inferring traits from outcomes while ignoring causal history yields racial habits

Evidence

Racial habits are formed by the outcomes we see in the world rather than by the complex processes that produced those outcomes. We see black and white sides of town and internalize certain assumptions about what that separation means, but rarely are those assumptions informed by the history of deliberate policies that created a dual housing market and residential segregation. We simply live where we live. We see double-digit black unemployment and infer things about black people from this statistic, but we rarely invoke the history of unfair labor practices, the exclusion of black people from labor unions, or the dual labor market that tracked certain folks to certain jobs. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 149

Categorization

• DEFINE: This precisely defines ‘racial habits’ as inferences from outcomes without causal context — exactly the definition the reader seeks to distinguish from mere prejudice.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated need to distinguish racial habits from prejudice; pairs with the value gap definition the reader wants.