Racism is learned. Teaching is the act of imparting knowledge. Learning is receiving knowledge. Based on these definitions one must conclude that racism is learned. As any experienced teacher will attest, unless an individual is open to receiving what is taught, teaching would be unsuccessful.

Babies come into the world as a pure blank slate, minus impressions and attitudes. As they grow, they learn through observation what to do and how to behave. Long before they attend school and receive a formal education, they are exposed to myriad learning experiences by observing behavior, speech and attitudes of those present in their environment.

If a child overhears or witnesses his parents maligning an individual or group based purely on racial or cultural differences, the child absorbs the lesson that being different in looks and behavior is not okay. Going forward the child will react with prejudiced suspicion toward people who do not look like him, and the seed of potential future racist behavior is planted.

All lessons in racism are not learned through negatives. Entertainment media often propagates discrimination in a comedic fashion by making jokes about cultural differences. Television commercials are becoming more blatant in their humorous advertising and often the racist reference is subtle and covert. Racism is alive and thriving in the media; often it takes the form of reverse discrimination posing as political correctness.

Racism is most often considered a Black issue, however all races can be victims under specific circumstances. When parents express a preference for their children to date and marry only individuals perceived as their own “kind,” they are victimizing their children with racist attitudes.

Society plays a role in the racist lessons learned. Children quickly recognize the implication of Black neighborhoods as opposed to Caucasian, areas reserved for only the Hispanic population and places only Asians congregate. This division by race is becoming less prevalent, but is neverthless, one of the ways children observe and learn racism.

Even applauding the rise of so-called “minorities” in the political and financial arenas as successful integration, brings attention to the fact that what should be ordinary is in fact considered extraordinary. Weighed against the backdrop of past history, this celebration of minority advancement covertly reeks of racism, but as some would argue, “in a good way.”

Racism is learned primarily by the following:

Modeling

A child who grows up in a home where fear or ridicule of others based on their color or cultural differences is prevalent, receives the message that individuals of other races are inferior and open to criticism or judgment.

Observation

Even if fear or ridicule are not openly verbally expressed, the child learns through observing overt racist behavior and attitudes. Schools, the media and the community are prime places for the child to be exposed to overt and covert racism.

Exposure

Living in an environment where there is constant and repetitive disparaging of groups or individuals aimed at their physical appearance or cultural traditions, will instill a mindset to avoid that particular group or any individual encountered from that race or culture. Children will readily mingle until differences are pointed out to them.

Stereotyping

Generalized statements about any ethnic group repeated in front of impressionable children will guarantee learned racism, often on an unconscious level. Eventually that learned bias will surface when circumstances match the criteria subconsciously absorbed.

The entertainment media is guilty of perpetuating stereotyping lessons in racism. The belief that belittling or making fun to the extreme will mitigate erroneous beliefs by bringing them out into the open and refuting their validity, does not eliminate the issue. Statements repeated over and over, even in jest, are absorbed into the subconscious.

One only has to spend a brief time at any school playground to observe lessons in racism well learned. Children taunting one another in fun will dredge up every ethnic nickname, racial slur, hate word and stereotype they have learned to expand their limited vocabulary and make their point of ridicule.

As long as there are people of color and cultural diversity, a degree of racism will exist. One notices differences. Great strides have been made, and will continue to be made in mitigating the impact of racism on individuals, but it is naive and misguided to believe society as a whole is indifferent to its differences.

Children learn racism, but they can be taught to accept and respect all individuals in a diverse society, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.