by Tammy Collins

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: August 13, 2011

Racism still exists for several reasons. Here are highlighted a few that seem to be the main culprits. Surely there are as many reasons as there are people in this world, but this is a start.

Competitiveness. As humans, we have some innate need to prove that we are "better then" the next person. Think about it, whether one's competitiveness comes out in athletics, the workplace, the church, or in the neighborhood; we all have it. We all participate in trying to be the best at something, or having the ability to "out do" the next person. Race just seems to fit right into this scenario. Obvious differences between people make it easier to compare one to another.

Fear of the Unknown. Part of being human is having the misfortune of being afraid of what we do not know. This is an innate part of our being. People who do not realize this, live in this fear of things unfamiliar to them. However, people who have more open minds and more of a desire to understand differences in cultures and race, have the ability to fight this fear of the unknown. They refuse to be controlled by it.

Tolerance. In order for racism to cease to exist, we have to become more tolerant of those individuals who may be different than ourselves. This is difficult, because, again, we have some sort of built-in mechanism that makes us believe that different is bad. We have to make a conscientious effort to open our minds and our hearts and embrace differences.

Racism will continue to exist for as long as we remain human. Even in other parts of the world, where race is less of an issue, people find reasons to discriminate and to set themselves apart. Perhaps it is religious backgrounds, or specific physical features, or you name it. We, as humans, look for and find differences in ourselves to set us apart from each other. This is why it is so important to teach tolerance and acceptance to our children from a very young age. Teach them to celebrate differences and learn from each other, rather than to allow our differences to set us apart from one another.

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