I believe the problem with racism is it's ignored. People will point out "We're living in the year 2010, we have a half-black president, racism is a thing of the past". Obviously it's not, it's just a bit more of a sneaky subject these days.

There are a lot of things people can point to as the cause of racism, but it's an array of problems all rolled into one.

Firstly, there's hate groups of course. Blind hate, rolling an entire nationality into one and branding it the enemy. This is the most obvious of the problems, since it not only furthers the hate message to other adults, but it is almost guaranteed to pass onto their children. You see this in the kids with the confederate flags on their power wheels, or the children in the middle east chanting about how Israel is the great satan and will be wiped off the map. This obviously only furthers the cycle and teaches them to grow up and instill the same values in their children. This has another problem tagged onto it, the race that these hate groups are targetting can't help but assosciate that color/nationality of people with the hate groups. So a few ignorant racists that live in a state nowhere near me can influence the mindset of my neighbor. And the worst part of it all? They're protected by the constitution to march the streets spitting their hate in every and any direction.

Second, the closet racists. I'll give an example. I worked in real estate in NYC for two years, directly interacting with many different property owners. I would say 90% of them were Jewish, I don't know why, but they are. In a meeting, everyone would be completely civil, looking eachother in the eye, speaking respectfully without a hint of any racism. Once the client would leave and we were outside having a smoke, the jokes would start. These men that were totally respectful to the clients faces were now saying some of the most disturbing and racially insensitive things you would ever hear. This is basically forming... I guess you could call it a secret hate group. I think this is just as destructive as a group that will openly declare their hatred. This "secret" group is still going to try to look out for eachother and always have a hidden agenda.

Third, community. It's impossible to deny that a child growing up in a home in a nice neighborhood and safe streets is going to have an easier time than one growing up in the projects where the can't even walk around outside of their apartment without fear of being harmed. Typically the worse communities will also have worse schools. This isn't exactly racism, it's just the vicious cycle capitalism produces. A child growing up in a bad community will have low self worth, and project it onto themselves. Chances are they will turn to crime, get into trouble with the law, and the government will scratch their heads as to why test scores and graduation rates in these areas are so low. It's sickening they can't see the obvious.

Next is the media. Typically, white people make up the "mass" of media in this country. If you see a black guy, he's good at basketball, or he's a rapper. Honestly, how many black stars are there? Tyler Perry and Will Smith I guess, but most of the others are cast strictly for black roles, rather than lead roles. It's the same with every race, asians and indians are cast for smart roles, the accountant or the computer whiz. I know that may not sound like an insult, but it's still racism even if the signs aren't all there. And have you noticed how every criminal on these shows is a middle aged white guy? They're afraid to cast minorities in a criminal role because they will be accused of racism if they do.

Lastly, we have reverse racism. I know, it's a term that has been thrown around and never properly defined (at least to me). Example, have you ever watched a black comedian? I am yet to watch one that hasn't incorporated a joke about white people in their act. If the shoe was on the other foot, and you had a white comic making black jokes, he would likely be boo'd off the stage in seconds. It's perfectly ok to call a white guy any name in the book you can think of, but if that same guy dares to retaliate he's immediately a racist and his name and reputation is smeared. I've felt this plenty of times, walking home from the subway only to have a group of young black men follow me saying "whiteboy whiteboy where you goin whiteboy". It got to the point where I actually had to run because I felt I was in serious danger. Did I go home and cry about it? No. Was I genuinely offended? No. Did I feel threatened? Yes. It's just another way racism is perpetuated, because before that I could walk home at 4am no problems no worries. After that I choose my routes carefully just to avoid where the drug dealers and what not hang out at night. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little unnerved walking home alone past a group of "thuggish" looking black guys. It's just sad because one or two bad experiences has somewhat changed my outlook on a certain type of people, though it would be ignorant to lump an entire people together because of two bad things.

I think AAAAA's story about her niece speaks volumes about human nature. She saw people that looked like her and identified with it. We all just want a place where we belong, and one of the easiest ways to do that is surround ourselves with people who look and act like us. If you take a child and give him colored blocks with letters on them and different shapes, and tell him to organize it, I believe chances are that the child will organize them first by color, then by matching letters and finally by shape. We are social creatures, and perhaps over the countless years of evolution one of our simplest survival strategies has been "Stay to your own". When western cultures started to advance ahead of the rest, they kept this mentality, and the walls are really just now being torn down. I saw someone wrote that racism is taught, which I agree with, however to a degree I think it's human nature to want to surround ourselves with people that look and act like us.

Now, how do we fix it? I have no idea. I think it will take a lot of people swallowing their pride on both sides of the fence. This is not an exclusively white thing no matter how hard the media tries to portray it as such. Ignoring there's a problem on one side and only focusing on the other is just going to lead to more injustice. I have sat here at the end of that sentence for about 10 minutes trying to think of some way that we could "combat" racism. I really can't think of anything. We just need to continue raising children in schools that are culturally rich, teach them that even though we may look different on the outside, we're the same on the inside. It's not going to be something easy to be rid of. Time will tell I suppose...