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Racism is still alive in the land of the free and the home of the brave but it‘s dying. Don’t believe so? I make this assertion mostly from personal experience and partly from following media reports.

I remember that in the 1940s we had a bunch of, using words of the time, “niggers” and “darkies” in the Indiana city of Marion where I lived. I also remember something I experienced, for the first time, in 1956 - something that, as an eighteen year old farm boy, I hardly knew existed. Segregation!

The Navy transferred a group of us from Norman, Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee by bus. Guess what. When we stopped somewhere in Arkansas for lunch, I noticed the petty officer in charge of us walking from “our“ restaurant to another down the street. He had to find a different restaurant because he was “colored” which was another word of the times.

I learned a lot about segregation during that trip but perhaps only 1% of what I know today.

While growing up in one Indiana city and on 2 farms, also in Indiana, until I was out of high school, I believe I only knew one black child. He and I were friends. We were in either kindergarten or the first grade at Marion when the notion that blacks and whites are different first struck me.

One day our teacher formed the class in two columns for a walk around the neighborhood. While walking, each of us held hands with the person walking beside us. Otis was my walking partner. I remember a few people, but not a large number, laughing at Otis and I as our class walked by.

From what I have learned the folks of Marion were not different than the folks at most cities during the 1920s and 1930s. I say this even though downtown Marion was the site of what is believed to be the last confirmed lynching of blacks in the northern United States according to Wikipedia.

Anatomy of a Murder, an article by David Bradley in the June 12, 2006 edition of The Nation, gives more information about the events leading up to the lynching.

Looking around today, it's easy to see we as a society have a much greater racial tolerance than we had 79 years earlier in 1930.

We rarely hear socially unacceptable racial terminology in polite company today. Racial and ethnic jokes, the same. I doubt that few people under the age of forty have heard a person of color described as a darkie. “Black” and “African-American” are words we will hear less and less as time moves on as well. There will be no more “us and them” - only “us.”

Before retirement, I have observed that blacks and whites get along well when in a common environment, such as the workplace. I worked at a large bank where I noticed that projects with a team or teams of mixed races were very productive. Each person always showed respect to all.

n his February, 2004 article, Keeping Racism Alive, written for the Cato Institute David E. Bernstein, a George Mason University law professor recognizes the decline of racism. He does, however, point out these two examples that remind us racism does still exist. One directed toward a Philadelphia man, Joseph Groh, and the toward a Southwest flight attendant, Jennifer Cundiff.

Joseph Groh

The Anti-Defamation League, demanded that Groh change the name of his restaurant, Chink’s Steaks, so that Asian-Americans will not be offended. Quite a petty demand when considering the previous owner, a Jewish man named Samuel Sherman, selected the name for the cheesesteak restaurant because his childhood nickname was Chink. The nickname stayed with Sherman his entire life and appears on his gravestone.

Jennifer Cundiff

With no ethnic slur intended, the Southwest flight attendant attempted innocent humor when asking passengers of a crowed flight to take a seat. Two black passengers accused Cundiff of using a racist rhyme when she said over the intercom, "Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat we gotta go." The two passengers said they interpreted the rhyme as a reference to the racial version of the old days where the second line was the phrase “catch a nigger by the toe.”

Cundiff, 22 years old, said she never heard of the earlier version. How many young Americans have? I doubt that I have heard it since long before Cundiff was born.

The passengers sued Southwest and lost because, they insisted, the jury was all white.

Bernstein's point

Here are portions of Bernstein's comments as he ends his article:

Indeed, it seems racism might finally be on its way to dying a rather peaceful death in America if it weren't for hypersensitive individuals, such as the cheesesteak police and the touchy Southwest passengers, who insist on keeping it alive by inventing reasons to become offended and cast blame.

We have come a long way from the deplorable days when the government assigned people more or less rights depending on their race. That people today are generally judged on their own merits as individuals and most of us don't dwell on race at all is a victory.

But until extremists desist in their efforts to manufacture a racist controversy out of innocent everyday goings on, it will be a victory only half won, for race, rather than individuals, will reign as a constant focus.

The race-obsessed have managed, once again, to keep racism alive.

Yes, Mr. Bernstein, you're right!

If Bernstein had written his article now, five years later, he would have been even more persuasive. With our beliefs of yesteryear, we would not have elected Barack Obama to be our president.

Morgan Freeman, the actor, knows how to end racism. The MSNBC website contains an Associated Press article dated December 15, 2005. The article, about an upcoming CBS “60 Minutes” interview, describes Freeman as believing the only way to get rid of racism is to “stop talking about it.“

Further, he believes the labels “black” and “white” are an obstacle to beating racism. Freeman also rejects the notion of black history month and notes there is no white history month.

How often have we heard similar assertions? You know, a Miss Black America contest without a corresponding Miss White America contest among other such absurdities. My hat is off to Morgan Freeman. He is right.

Freeman probably realizes, though, that our stop talking about racism will be a long time happening.

I think that as long as the young hear racial comments at the dinner table and from peers, racism will remain with us.

Too, I think the media will continue spreading racial stories, no matter how insignificant. After all, the media needs topics for individual survival - you know, paychecks. Racism is one of the topics that lead to continuous employment for media personnel.

Now, let me add that I personally see no harm in racism in itself.

Quoting from my Webster's II New College Dictionary, racism:

1. The notion than one's own ethnic stock is superior,

2. Prejudice or discrimination based on racism.

(Huh? I was always taught that one cannot use a word in its own definition. A rhetorical question: Have the rules for definitions changed? Or, perhaps I should buy a different dictionary.)

Webster's shows, "irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race or religion" as a synonym for prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance.

It shows, "A prejudiced act," as the third definition of discrimination.

So, what are you saying, Larry?

I'm saying racism is a belief. I'm saying prejudice and discrimination are actions.

I'm saying , keep your racist beliefs if you want - no harm there. Harm comes when we talk pejoratively about, or act in a way detrimental to, an individual of a race, or an entire race, different than our own because of our racists beliefs.

Lighten up, people of America. Take Morgan Freeman’s advice and get over it.