Racism is Everywhere

A lot of people deny that they are racists when they behave like racists.  Its hard to blame them when racism has become a part of almost everything in America.

The fact that we track statistics by race and ethnic origin perpetrates the very concept that people are not just people.

Now, this may be well intentioned, designed to measure progress or failure to progress, but the flaw lies in the idea that a large group of people have so much in common that they form a group.

Groups exist because they share a meaningful attribute.  If we consider the color of a person's skin a meaningful attribute, it is racist.

Now researchers may be well intentioned and not even think about the fact that categorizing people in this way gives credibility to racism.

I have friends who are individuals.  They come from different backgrounds, have different ethnic origins, practice different religions, have different jobs but the color of their skin should not be a distinguishing factor except in the sense that someone' hair color is.  The fact that it is in this country its probably the most distinguishing characteristic is racism.

Now we consider racism a bad thing since we equate it with discrimination.  It is certainly a tool used for that purpose, but one may be racist and not discriminate.  If you tend to think that there are people who are not like you because of a characteristic they were born with, it is essentially a racist belief.

The point is that in America, racist beliefs are almost universal and are so ingrained into our society that I don't see it changing any time soon. 

Not everyone will agree with this but when a person is judged by the color of their skin when you know nothing else about them, that is racism.  If a group of black teenagers makes you nervous but a group of white teenager doesn't, that is racism.  If you feel that police are justified in shooting unarmed black men because so many are dangerous, that is racism. 

This list goes on and on, and its so ingrained that we think these beliefs are justifiable.  They aren't, each person has the right to be judged based on their character, not some groups.