I know growing up I had some friends that I no longer associate with because of their racism made me sick. When I became friends with them in High School they slowly showed me their hate. At one point I started listening and questioned my own feeling about this. I had a talk with my dad and realized how beautiful my family is. I found out that on both sides of my family, my grandparents arrived in New York on fishing boats. My Mother's mom was from Germany and on her first day of school her head was pushed in a toilet by other girls and flushed. When she got older she married a European man that also arrived here on a fishing boat. My Father's mom arrived here from Italy and never could escape hate and racism. She married a man from Austria that also came to this country by fishing boat. He faced hate every day and he was raised in Virginia. I actually stood up to my so called friends about my "melting pot" family and never talked to them again. I know I am rambling but my point is some of the most racist people I have ever met did not even know about there ancestors and just acted racist to fit in.

Smurfs
Sneaky little blue buggers

I wanted to add that this one boy in my school did not like African Americans, he was such a racist. I was so happy to learn later that he was visited by an Uncle when his Dad died to inform him that he had African American relatives on his Mother's side.

Nearly everyone possess their own personal prejudices; which is defined as a certain set of beliefs, attitudes, and opinions that have formed over years due to environmental factors and individual experiences. It is an inevitable and common part of our human nature and should not be condemned for its existence alone. It is when we act on those negative prejudices than it becomes a form of discrimination and bigotry and that is what should be scrutinized and eliminated. We will never be able to fully remove prejudice from the human psyche, but, what we can do is teach self control and institute the social controls necessary to make sure that acting on our prejudices is socially unacceptable and forever be looked down upon. Sorry for rambling, just my two cents.

Sorry I have to disagree, we are all one race humanity. I do not see the need to separate myself based on the amount of melanin in skin pigmentation.

Far more differences than just that. To ignore those differences, is just...well ignorance. In addition to pigment, there are cultural differences, entitlement issues based on ancient history, social inequalities, historical discrimination, etc.

It's great to just throw that all out the window and say we're all the same...but we aren't. All of these things shaped us (all of us), regardless of race, and even two peoples who are "white" can be as different as night and day culturally and socially. Compare white trash to a blue-blood, for example.

The real focus should be on accepting these differences and TREATING people (all people) the same as we'd want to be treated. Then we'd all be better off....but claiming we aren't different can be just as dangerous as focusing on those differences.

Some people might say that it is a survival instinct to trust those who have genes closer to us. If the "selfish gene" theory is true, our genes want us to help to pass down, and pass down genes as close to us as possible. It's why we automatically like our children more than our cousin's children, and why we automatically like our cousin's children more than complete strangers children, IF (big if) this theory is true. However, it may be a true thing, because the animals have been shown to do similar behaviors in the experiments. So if this is the case, there might be an "automatic" [dictionary - "innate" ? I dont know this word]preference for people who "look like us" which means more likely to have closer genes.(??)

Even if this is true, though, we are not bound by biology, we are not animals. Humans have worked hard to transcend many of the "innate[?] instincts" - we are not animals. What makes us human is what separates us from animals. We can learn to not give free expression to other "innate instincts", like restraining our violence or sex impulses. We can do the same thing with race impulses if they are true, and we must do so. For a better world! But to transcend, we must first admit, right/