Race was a big issue in 2014. It would be hard to sum it all up in a paragraph or a couple of sentences, but here's a stab in the dark: at various times, some white folks got (in)famous for doing some horrible,racist things. Then, a lot of people got upset about those things that happened, and perhaps even more upset about the systemic racism that enabled those happenings. Finally – and this is the bit I'd like to talk about – a bunch of (predominantly white) folks said that none of it was really about race and that there's really no such thing as racism anymore.

Essentially, we all got trolled by a gigantic "I'm not racist, but I'm going to follow that clause by saying something really racist" outburst.

Of course, people who preface their bigotry with an "I'm not racist, but..." clause are easy to identify, but this pattern of racism denial isn't limited to the subtlety-handicapped. I have a personal theory that there is an inverse relationship between one's actual level of racism and one's willingness to admit racial bias. In other words, if you think you haven't got a racist bone in your body, you are being dishonest with yourself, and that dishonesty is probably preventing you from recognizing your racial biases.

As Jenée Desmond-Harris points out on Vox.com, racism has gone from an explict to an implicit problem:

To get a bit social sciencey about this, the protestors in Selma were fighting explicit bias and concrete discrimination. But those protesting racially biased policing in Ferguson and around the country are fighting something more complicated and more insidious: implicit racial bias.

Implicit racial bias is what happens when, despite our best intentions and often without our awareness, racial stereotypes and assumptions creep into our minds and affect our actions.

Thirty years of neurology and cognitive psychology studies show implicit bias influences the way we see and treat others, even when we're absolutely determined to be, and believe we are being, fair and objective.

But all hope isn't lost: there is evidence that awareness of a racial bias can help mitigate its impact. In a recent Time.com article, Dr. David Berri addressed the issue of implicit racial bias among NBA referees. Consider Dr. Berri's article a sort of academic review of the literature:

And the research didn’t stop there. Price, Wolfers, and fellow behavioral scientist Devin Pope recently investigated whether referees have subsequently changed their behavior. And the results of this research is actually good news for the NBA. The original research looked at data from 1990-91 to 2001-02. This latest study considered two additional time periods. First the authors examined data from 2002-03 to 2005-06. As with the original study, evidence of implicit bias was again found in the more recent data.

The authors, though, didn’t stop there. As noted, the publicity for this research occurred in 2007. So at that point, referees were likely made aware of this issue. Did that make any difference? Looking at data from 2006-07 to 2009-10, it appeared it did. Specifically, in the latter time period, the authors “find that racial bias completely disappeared.”

Obviously, referee bias pales in significance next to some of the racial issues we are struggling with, but we are, after all, a sports site. I don't pretend to have the answers to society's vast systemic racial problems.

But I am confident that we aren't going to find any working solutions to systemic racism until more of us racists stand up and admit to our prejudices. I suspect that it's very much like alcoholism. You can't get better until you admit there's a problem.