This is a bit of a red herring.
This statement has nothing to do with actually liking racism, open nor closed.
It simply means that covert racism (i.e. institutional racism) has been the greatest threat we have faced over the past 60 years. Its not even up for debate, economically speaking.
What I mean is-
Imagine a white manager who simply does not want to hire a black person on his team. First off, it would be extremely difficult to ever prove this considering he is 'not being open'. And even if they were ever caught, he still would have the ability to feign ignorance and pretend that it was 'an oversight'. Sure, they would go to some BS diversity training, but- they still would retain their employment/power, they still will be allowed to go to their same country clubs, they still would be welcomed into their community.