by Rachel Carroll

Created on: November 16, 2008

I watched the movie "The Great Debaters" the other night. I was horrified at the fear and powerlessness that these brave and educated people had to live with in the 1930's. I was even more horrified to see the paper today that described hate crimes occurring all over the United States after Barack Obama was elected to be the next president of this country. Obviously there is a majority in this country who feel that race is not a factor in determining a president's capability, but there are an astonishing number of people who still dwell in a state of belief that those of another race are inferior. I attribute this to bad upbringing for the most part but also the fact that these racists most likely live in certain conditions. Instead of reiterating the facts that point to the existence of racism in this country, such as higher numbers of minorities living in prisons or poverty, how about we strike at the root of the problem and find out what perpetuates racism in certain groups and not in others. What is the profile of a racist? I don't think there have been many studies done on this topic, so I will have to use a bit of conjecture and a lot of empirical data but I feel that the information is still a good place to start if we want to eliminate this scourge of divisive belief that runs veins of hate from the South to the North and from the East to the West.

Point One: Racism can be passed on from parents but just because your parents are racist,does not mean that you will be. Some of my friends growing up had very racist parents, but because the societal structure and peers around them did not support the model they were getting at home, they did not completely adhere to their parents ideology.

Point Two: Racism appears to flourish where there is society support for it. Areas such as Alabama, where my father in law (who was extremely racist) used to live, harbor huge pockets of White People who are extremely racist and lean on each other for support of their beliefs.

Point Three: Diversity takes away fear, Homogeneity breeds fear. Those areas of the country where more racism exists tend to have less integration of diverse groups. Alabama for instance has black and white populations but they still live largely separate from each other. Large concentrations of white only populations with the few minorities that live there being very poor, uneducated and not able to fit in with white groups will exacerbate racism.

Conclusion: The cure for racism is to demand diversity in all settings so that people can learn to respect one another and remove fear from their minds. We fear what we don't know. We also need to break up the existing networks of racists so that they lack support from one another to perpetuate violence and hate, perhaps the outsourcing of jobs from Detroit to Southern states will help accomplish this but not in all states. Finally, turnover of people in power to younger generations and people from other areas of the country with higher minority populations will help eliminate the power of racists to control jobs and the education of the youth. These steps will eventually eliminate the racist ideology simply for the fact that it cannot be perpetuated and the young will carry on a torch of diversity and equality.

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