Racism is definitely learned.

It is observed by children of people as they grow up. They are definitely not born that way. A 5-year-old boy learns to hate as he observes his father refer to blacks as the “n-word, ” for example. It is the same as learning to lie to get out of explaining why you cannot pay the phone bill for the third month in a row. The phone rings, and Mom instructs Junior to pick it up, and tell the bill collectors that she is “not here.” Similarly, kids hear the “n” word repeated over and over, as well as the idea that black people are somehow inferior to whites and Hispanics.

I see proof of that when I see really young black and white kids playing together on the swing sets, or playing “ring around the rosie” at school, without caring about what the color of their playmates’ skin happens to be. They don’t care about the things their parents think about, the stereotypes of the other race (whatever the other race happens to be) that they have bought into. They are but children, and to them everyone is the same.

But as children age, something happens: As they approach high school, young white girls are told politely by their parents that, while it was fine to dance with the black boys at the middle school dances, it is now time to start mixing and mingling with one’s own kind now. You dance with your kind, and you let them dance with their own kind, they are told. And that is sad.

For me I never understood that kind of code. A code that taught you that it was wrong to fall in love with someone outside your own race. I always questioned why. Kids with racist parents do not allow their children to question why, but simply to listen and obey. Or else they are told all the bad things that people of color represent: that they are basically lazy, irresponsible, that they listen to loud music that disrespects women and each other. They are told that black men are usually late for work, for church, and for everything else.

And these are the people who grow up to be the employers of tomorrow. They are taught this garbage, and it begins to affect how they hire and fire. While it is true that according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that outright discrimination on the basis of race is illegal, they will find a way to get around hiring a person of color, once the “quota” has been met. They may secretly shred an application, saying the person was “overqualified,” or “underqualified.” They do it in an underground fashion, so that it can never be proven in a court of law.

That racism is learned provides hope for the future, however. That tells this writer that racism can also be unlearned. With the reality that the United States of America could very soon receive its first black president could go very far to undo some old-fashioned, dearly held stereotypes about African-Americans. Here is a brilliant, articulate, young African American man who defies all stereotypes, a powerful leader at that.

As a society, we must do our part to teach each other that the stereotypes of what a typical black man or white woman behaves like are not necessarily true. For example, just because you see a black man 18-44 walking alone at night, it does not necessarily mean he is up to no good.

This journalist does feel that excellent strides have been made, however. Again, let me refer back to Barack Obama. That this man has reached the point of being the first serious candidate for president who is nonwhite says a lot about where America is headed. It tells us that we may be on the way to unlearning a behavior that has been passed down from generation to generation, and learned, then taught to the next generation.

Let’s be proactive about teaching our children that everyone is valuable in the eyes of their Creator, regardless of the color of their skin. Let’s advance the Great Dreamer’s Vision of an America where racism is neither taught or learned anymore, that each man is judged by the “content of their character rather than the color of their skin (King, “I Have a Dream” Speech, 28 August, 1963 March on Washington.)