It's not an overt racism, as in hey, let's drown a bunch of negros! but it's a racism of neglect and disinterest. Conservatives typically acknowledge the definition of racism as the former and oppose it (most of them anyway), and change the subject on the latter. That having been said, once you add the racism of the latter to the equation, it often gets backformed into the former, sometimes by design to advocate a particular viewpoint, and sometimes by conviction, and sometimes by ignorance. The truth is, like all important issues in the US, is somewhere in between in this case, those who would deny that race had ANY part in this calamity and those who believe it to be the defining issue. But the mass media, the mass culture, the pundit class, the politicians tend to draw a binary distinctions far too readily and thus misses the opportunity to actually transform the hearts and minds on the issue.