We are all reeling from the horrific criminal Russian attack on Ukraine and its sovereignty. No good person among us isn’t pained by the death and destruction occurring in Ukraine. People around the world are praying for the conflict to end.

But while we cry for Ukraine and root for its military to somehow defeat Russia, and we beg President Biden and the rest of the world to unleash every imaginable sanction against Russia and its benefactors, we get a sick reminder that too many of us continue to view people who are not white in the most racist manner.

Whether it’s on purpose or just so ingrained into their psyches that they can’t help it, the result is the same. Brown people are still portrayed as less than, backwards and uncivilized. And white is deemed worthy and special.

CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata, live from Kyiv, couldn’t help himself when it “slipped out.”

“Now with the Russians marching in, it’s changed the calculus entirely. Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the city. There will be many more; people are hiding in bomb shelters. But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that have seen conflict raging for decades. This a relatively civilized, relatively European place where you wouldn’t expect… that it’s going to happen.”

You can even hear D’Agata under his breath say he should be careful what he says.

An Al Jazeera reporter similarly showed his true colors:

“What is compelling about these people is how they’re dressed; they are prosperous, middle-class people who obviously are not refugees.”

Are you serious? The people are compelling because they wear Western clothes? Is an Arab thobe not compelling enough for you?

NBC’s Kelly Cobiella was even worse:

“Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria. These are refugees from neighboring Ukraine. That, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians. They are white.”

Are you getting nauseous yet?

Hold your vomit. It gets even worse.

A BBC interviewee was less slick about his feelings.

“It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed.”

Sound Aryan Hitleresque to you?

Identifying people who are intentionally racist has always been easy, and some of these reporters may even fall into that category. We can and should properly research people before they are hired or interviewed. Racists need not apply.

But for the vast majority of us, maybe even some of the reporters, we all suffer from severe unconscious bias after years of imagery from film, entertainment, literature and other media. After being subjected to an educational system that promotes whites are good and smart and non-whites as meaningless; after too many otherwise good people grew up learning that black was bad: Black magic. Black plague. Black evil. The dark side. White is good. White is pure. White doves. White angels. White superheroes. Shit, even white lies are considered okay.

So many of us think we are walking through life not being racist, but it turns out we have some work to do. It’s time to reevaluate why we do and say the darnedest racist things if we aren’t racist in our hearts.

That reevaluation can only occur through a reprogramming of society. We must teach accurate history. We must celebrate the achievements and contributions of others. Black people. Arabs. Women. You get the picture.

Whether we call it critical race theory or something else, the bottom line is we will never be able to stop viewing others in a less-than way until we unravel all the unconscious bias that has seeped into our hearts and minds. We must discover why we keep acting like this.

It’s not enough to think we are all just good people. Good intentions just aren’t enough.

We’ve been led astray, and it’s our responsibility to now learn truth. To read. To understand racist systems and bias. To be part of the dismantling of those systems.

I recommend as a starting point the following books:

How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Responsibility by Barbara Applebaum. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olou.

Just like every other trauma, racial bias included, we need proper help to overcome it. The starting point is to learn about it. Books. Podcasts. Seminars. It’s all available for us to start the unwinding.

Until then, too many of us — reporters, police officers, teachers, judges and bosses included — will continue to instinctively look down on people who aren’t white.