Racism is really nothing more than the negative beliefs that another person or group of people are inferior to another person or group of people solely on the basis of that person or groups race. It's a belief system. Like any belief system it is learned. Children learn it from parents, other children and their peers as they grow up. Most educated people today don't believe that race is a determinant in ones intellect or intrinsic value to society.
I believe what many people unfairly judge people by is the culture they come from and the observable economic status of that culture. One thing most of us FEAR is poverty. Poverty itself is considered a negative condition and we view those living in poverty as having an inferior work ethic to ours. We see poverty as a prerequisite to criminal activity. I think the media portrays those living in poverty as people who don't matter as much. Think about it for a moment. How would the media portray a truck loaded with migrant workers who had suffocated to death while being smuggled into the country as opposed to how would they portray a bus crash that resulted in the deaths of a group of prep school kids? I believe we suffer more from culturalism and economicism than from racism. When people use degrading expressions about blacks, they aren't thinking about a black businessman who lives in an expensive apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan. When they use degrading expressions about Hispanics, they aren't referring to Jennifer Lopez or other famous Hispanics. They are expressing their economic biases. People of other races whom we percieve as being in our economic strata are somehow less threatening than those living in abject poverty.
Racism is a term that gets thrown around too much for politically correct reasons. If one can be labeled a racist, then their entire persona can be trivialized. Frankly, I believe stupid people throw around the term racism in hopes that others won't see how stupid they are in their pathetic little real lives. "I'm not a racist and you are, therefore I'm good and you're bad."
I admit that I've changed my opinions about a lot of things over the past few decades. The farther I get from being a JW, the more accepting I am of other people and other cultures. My father was extremely distrusting of Jews. In the era in which he grew up, people feared others whom they didn't understand and Jews, Blacks and even Asians were not understood by people in his day. JW's will promote the notion that they aren't burdened by "racism" or judging others by their race, but in reality, I've known hundreds of JW's who look down their noses as people from other cultures. Remember, this is the same group of people who claim that they have cornered the market on Christian love, yet unmercifully shun people who have made mistakes. Saying one is loving, or accepting of others does not make it so.
Sorry, I just felt the need to ramble this morning!
