Racism has a huge effect on our daily lives. With the advent of technology the world world is fast becoming a very small place. This has the effect of bringing us all closer together. People that did not see another person of a different race for months, are now dealing with different races of people on a sometimes daily basis.

I am wondering if racism and racist attitudes are born into people or taught to them. I also wonder at the effect that the media of today has on forming the opinions of many people & therefore assisting or aggravating the individual attitudes of people.

I am possibly one of the least racist people that you are ever likely to meet. I have good friends from many walks of life & religious beliefs from all over the world. I also have friends that are typical caucasian. I find it interesting in conversation when some of my caucasian friends will say that racist attitudes are not as bad now as several years ago. They have never lived with a person of different race and/or religious beliefs. I have had the experience of walking down the street with a good friend of different race, and watch them being verbally abused from passing traffic. My caucasian friends have never seen this and deny that it happens. But then, they do not see this happen because they do not associate with people of other races. This leads me to the conclusion that a lot of society is in denial, with the attitude that if they can not see or hear it happening then it is not happening. It is a bit like sticking your head in the sand and saying that nobody can see you.

Witness the racial riots that have been happening of late in various parts of the world. The media reports on the situation, and always seems to put their slant on the situation. Racism takes many different forms also. How could we possibly forget the hurricane devastation of New Orleans only a few years ago. The attitude of the government to the people of the area was very thinly disguised racism. Had that event happened in a different area of the country (California for example) would the reaction from the government & emergency services have been different.

Racism is not however only restricted to those of us from the English speaking world. Over the years I have encountered some very interesting attitudes. On a visit to the Philippines I found it alive and well. The thought there was that they could not be accused of being racist because they are Asian. After asking some questions I learnt that it is only White people that are racist (the opinion of the Filipino I was talking with), while he was saying some very derogatory things about white people in general. On this train of thought, we can not forget the very public problems of some of the countries from the middle east. A minority group of people with some interesting beliefs and attitudes has changed the opinions of most of the western world towards them. But we as rational humans should know that it is not all of them, just a small minority.

Racism is very interesting because we as a society continually try to deny the existence of it. The various armed forces are a great example of it. During training and prior to deployment to an area it is hammered into the soldiers that they are the enemy. This I understand is required. However a lot of the defence people are young and impressionable. They have been known to have the hatred towards all of the people from that country. This is wrong when the person from that country is now in another country and trying to rebuild a life. Just like you sitting at home, you did not fight in any war, you did not hurt any person. Chances are that the person of a different ethnic background is exactly the same as you and just trying to get on with life. When I was in the defence force I came up to a moral dilemma. I was ordered to kill. I suddenly realised that the person in my sights was a real person just like me. He probably had a real family just like me. He was probably trying to support a family just like me. He was probably scared and trying to stay alive, just like me. I lowered my weapon & walked out of the area. I came to the conclusion that the real criminals and racists of the world are those that we voted in to the position of power. The soldiers of the world are simply their way of winning an argument, and are disposable

Racism is taught. I came to this opinion very simply. a few days ago my young son and I went to the parklands. While we were their he was swimming around with kids from all nations, walks of life & religious beliefs. All of the children were having a great time. They were all playing together, and yet most of them had never met each other until that day. At no stage did I see any of these children lecturing others on religion, colour of skin, or financial background. They were just having fun together. Children are very accepting of others. Children simply accept that somebody else looks a little different to them, or believes other things. But they still enjoy life together & have fun together.

Maybe the world would be a better place if we all took a few lessons from our children, and used some of their attitudes, rather than teach them our misguided attitudes.