Racism

Race is a social construct. There is no physical thing as race, people of different colors have nothing that makes them physically different besides the color of their skin, yet racism has run rampant throughout the history of society. In the old days we kept black people as slaves, and although the days where this is allowed are long gone, racism is not.

Society at whole tends to view racism as a non-issue these days. It has long stopped being socially acceptable to be racist, so most people view that as the end of the problem and move on. However, just because people can't use racial slurs and descriminate legally, that does not mean that racism is a thing of the past.

While racism may no longer be explicit, implicit racism still runs rampant. Beauty for example is still seen as something to be almost exclusively white. Models, idols, people society deems as attractive almost always are white, or at least have light skin. This implicitly sends a message to minority children that they are not as good as their white counterparts solely because of the color of their skin.

Everyone is a little bit racist, even you and me. Its a product of the society we are born into. My favorite example is something I frequently chide my parents for, but something that I, and probably many other people do, nonetheless. When in a unfamiliar city, you always want to find out if you are in a safe neighborhood to be in or not. And how do most people go about doing this? They look at the other people in the area and judge the ratio of white people to minorities. If there's more minorities, most people would leave. Is this racist? Absolutely. But it is a product of the society we are built into. People are tought from a young age that white people are safe and minorities are dangerous. Thus you can hardly blame them for being racist when that is what they are tought. In order to eliminate racism, we must stop teaching children these implicit values of racism.