and have heard the n-word jokes . '' Feagin and Leslie Picca of the University of Dayton compiled their research in a book called `` Two-Faced Racism '' published in 2007 . They surveyed 626 white students at 28 colleges and universities across the country . They asked the students to keep diaries and record any racial events they came across during the course of a day . The students recorded 9,000 accounts , of which 7,500 were `` blatantly racist '' events ranging from private jokes and conversations to violent incidents , Feagin said . About 100 accounts stood up against racism , he said . The majority of racial events were directed at African-Americans , but Latinos and Asians also came under attack . Feagin and Picca also surveyed African-American students , but that research is still being compiled . `` In these 7,500 blatant accounts , most of them are accounts of what we call backstage racism -- that is they 're doing these performances and skits with friends and relatives , '' Feagin said . Does it surprise him that someone with such political clout as Reid would use a term such as `` Negro dialect
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- We 're just going to put it out there : Behind closed doors , whites talk differently about blacks . At least that 's what two sociologists found after conducting a study of college students across the country . One of the researchers , Joe Feagin , said that 's why it comes as no surprise to him that a powerful politician such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would talk about Barack Obama 's skin color and use the term `` Negro dialect '' in what he considered a private conversation . Speaking not of Reid but of his conclusions drawn from his research , Feagin said , `` Most whites have sharply reduced the blatantly racist stuff they do in public , while they still do huge amounts in private . '' `` It 's just social correctness in the front stage . The scale of this is gigantic on the backstage , which is why the notion of a post-racial America is laughable , '' said Feagin , a professor at Texas A&M University . `` And I think most whites know it because they 've been to Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Jim