OGLESBY, Ill. – Does racism exist without racists?

Students at Illinois Valley Community College recently received a lecture on the subject by white privilege professor Jared Olesen, who argued that systemic racism in America continues thanks to oblivious white folks, the News Tribune reports.

“Most of us kind of image that civil rights leveled the playing field,” Olesen told a standing-room-only crowd during his “Racism without Racists” talk Wednesday. “In many ways, serious gaps still exist.”

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Olesen discussed government housing programs in the 1930s that excluded black and Hispanic neighborhoods, the disproportionate incarceration rates for African-American men, and the recent deaths of black criminals at the hands of white police officers, according to the news site.

“Why is it still this bad?” Olesen asked the largely white crowd of students. “Racial issues have not gone away.”

And that’s the fault of “the white community,” which clings to a “color-blind ideology,” he said.

Olesen believes the proof lies in common white responses to racism like “African-Americans are free; they have the opportunity to improve their lives,” “It’s only natural to segregate ourselves,” “We’ve made so much progress – why are you complaining?” or “African-Americans can be racist against white people, too,” he told students.

“We certainly can’t get rid of (racism) by being nice,” Olesen said, according to the News Tribune. “To say, ‘I don’t see color; I don’t see race’ is to deny their suffering and the reality they live with.”

Others who spoke at the event described how they’ve been the victim of unintentional racism.

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IVCC chemistry professor Promise Yong, for example, discussed how store owners have followed him to make sure he wasn’t stealing something, and another instance in which he pulled over in the parking lot of a closed business to make a call and was shooed away by a neighbor, according to the news site.

“Most of it is out of ignorance,” Yong, originally from Cameroon, told students. “They don’t purposely do it.”

But those types of situations are rare, he said, adding that his son has had “a great experience” attending Trinity Catholic Academy as the only black student.

“He stands out, so it’s very nice that he’s treated like any other kid,” Yong said, according to the news site.

He also pointed out that the behavior of blacks perpetuates an unspoken divide between races.

“If I see a black person and I say, ‘Hi, brother,’ and then I see a white person and I don’t say the same thing, what message am I getting across?” he questioned. “Really, in my understanding, we are all the same people. We are all human beings – that’s what’s really important. We all have the same blood.”

That mentality, however – that we are all humans with the same blood – is exactly the type of “color blind ideology” Olesen believes ignores how blacks are “suffering and the reality they live with.”

But perhaps the problems with a “color-blind ideology” are only relevant in “the white community.”