Elaine Gross, from ERASE Racism, says her nonprofit focuses on structural racism, meaning the practices and policies that create racial disparities.

She says we're currently living in a soup of structural racism -- meaning "we can't get out of the soup, what we can do is recognize all of us are in it and try the best that we can to transform that."

Gross talks about the development of Long Island and how places like Levittown were intentionally racially segregated, and how some people's knowledge of history may be painted without things like redlining or sundown towns -- where Black people could not be in certain places after dark.

She also details examples of racism she experienced in her placement in school, with housing and at the Metropolitan Opera.

MORE REFLECTIONS ON RACE: Reflections on Race - 'The perception of a Black man sometimes is twisted'
Reflections on Race: 'I learned at a young age that not everyone is for you'
Reflections on Race: 'I don't want to be identified as just another man in America'