I don't think its possible to be absolutely free of racial prejudice. I believe that everyone has a preference of one race over another, even if its just to a small degree. For example, I could never be real chummy with a Lithuanian. Hal
Most of my friends are not all but most dark skinned and from other countries, it took me 2-3 years to totally be accepted and we still kid each other over that, most are doctors or law enforcement occupations. Now all legal US citizens. I have learned a lot from them on what they have endured, it all started when my closest friend showed up for a charter fishing trip and was told the boat was full, I had never met him prior and said hey get in trip's on me lets go! My #1 male friend for along time now. His entire family also.
@Hal Pollner ..I agree to a point. Take a black male tattooed metaled up in a hooded jacket...then a black man in a suit, followed by another black male in jeans tee shirt and nike sneakers. Our perception of each one of them is different even tho they all are same shade of black. We all , make a three second judgement about people based on looks, not necessarily color of skin. Just a thought to ponder.
I agree that there will always be a degree of racism. It seems to be human nature to be more accepting of those who look like ourselves. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much improvement in race relations; no amount of legislation is going to change human nature.
I would not say it is Human nature as far as a learned trait. Where I grow up there was no blacks or other races so I had no interaction. Later when I met people of different races my parents would say they are just like us. If you seen me now my extended family is very dark and we get along great.
I think tolerance, empathy and respect is more important than acceptance. If someone doesn't fully accept another person, for any reason, if they treat each other with tolerance,empathy, and respect, they can get along. Children who haven't been conditioned to feel differently about others, don't. My daughter's best friend at day care (they were four or five) was mentioned almost every day. They were inseparable. I didn't know until I met her that she was of another race. I've seen tensions and hostilities form in groups where caucasians became the minority. Racists definitely come in all colors.
In life if you notice a particular group of people continually creating problems for others I take notice of them, all of same guilty NO but do take notice, I would guess most others also do the same thing.
I think so to. Just like little kids will eat a certain food they like, but once around a group of kids who claim not to like that food ... neither do they now. @Ken Anderson
It’s obvious from reading here that most of us do not really apply skin color to what and who we like or do not like. It seems to me though, that via the media, we are constantly being bombarded with rules that are supposed to help with race relations. In short, the rules do not make sense. As of just a few years ago, it has been heavily suggested that when we describe someone, we should leave their skin color out of the description especially when it involves a wrong doing. When a police report comes out, they are supposed to give the height, weight and what they are wearing but not the color of their skin nor their apparent ethnicity. To give a full description of a person is racist and / or whatever “phobia” one might have it seems. In the last few days, one 29 year old female in Congress stated that a certain president has a token black person in his staff which proves he is racist. Okay, if you are called a racist and you point out that you have a person of color on your staff, that makes it even worse because it’s tokenism which makes you a bigger racist than just a simple white sheet wearing racist. Let us examine this just for a moment. If you have a black person on your staff, it’s tokenism and racist but if you have no persons of color on your staff you are also racist for not employing at least one or according to our laws, a % of a race on your staff or workforce. As it stands, it is a no win situation. No matter how we may think or what we do, it seems that at every turn in our lives someone is poking us in the eye with some racial stick.
On day after my shift was over driving home I had a car pass me fast with 3 black males in it looking back at me, I had the regular radio on only and heard of a bank robbery the description was very PC vague I called in and got the real description I just passed the suspects if they had nor been so PC I would have known, neither white nor black was stated I was livid and said so they had eluded police by now and all the cash was never recovered I do not do well with politically correct types at all never have never will. I always called in race on descriptions every darn time. 93% of our county jail was black or minority when I left. What is IS
I didn't say that racism is human nature; I said it's human nature to be drawn to people who are more like ourselves. Furthermore, I believe we should all be more concerned with ageism at this point in our lives. It's still OK to make "old people" jokes so I need to paint some signs, make an ass of myself, and go viral!!