Yes, I believe racism is still very much alive today. Take, for example, the recent situation involving Shirley Sherrod. Her name was dragged through the mud on national news and she lost her job; all because one right-wing political blogger on-line took two sentences from a speech she gave and reported them out of context. She was made to look like a racist when really she was speaking about overcoming racism and appreciating people for who they are rather than for the color of their skin. In its haste to show contempt to any form of racism, the Obama administration fired Sherrod before looking into the accusation itself.

This situation highlights two problems in our society. First, the news media is becoming more and more unreliable and unprofessional. It seems like the days of fact-checking are long behind them and that they focus on "stories" that are more sensational than truthful. Second, it proves that racism is still very much alive. If it weren't such a concern, then the Administration could have taken, I don't know, fifteen minutes to look into the accusation or speak with Sherrod.

I think the same characteristics that cause certain people or kids to become bullies will also turn some people into racists. It's one of human natures less appealing traits, because of this, unfortunately I think you are right, it's not going to go away.

Racism, in it's most extreme form can start wars and I don't believe that education, threat of punishment, or anything else will ever stop it completely.

I live in Spain and on the walls of my local health center, there are signs which I believe are racist. They are only written in English and we have people from many other countries living in the town. The wording is "We do not speak English or any other language, (does that include Spanish, I wonder?) if you want our services bring an interpreter". Yes, sure, living in Spain we should all speak Spanish, but why are the the signs not in German, French, Romanian, etc as well?

I do believe racism still exists, yes. In the end, I think prejudice will always exist, though the political force behind it may fade. By that, I mean society may one day balance out the power between people, thus eliminating the ability of racial bias to cause one group to be inherently oppressed by the other. Dislike and bias may still exist, but the weight of political power may diminish.

I actually think people have the right to be biased, so long as they don't let their biases come out in actions that harm other people. I personally think it's stupid to say that all cultures are equal. If someone thinks treating women like dirt and stoning them to death for minor "infractions" is okay, sorry, but their society is not as good as mine. So long as I treat members of their society decently and don't cause them financial, social, or physical harm, I feel like I've met my ethical obligation. I do not feel obligated to actually respect or like them. If someone wants to call that bigotry, fine.

A lot of things cause bias: personal experiences, values passed on from parents and other influences, fears, ignorance, etc. Some of these things provide totally false information, or cause one to generalize to an entire population what is true of only one individual. However, if we're all going to be afraid of being labeled "racist," we're probably not going to have very honest conversations about race, so honestly, I think we all need to relax.

I also believe that racism still exists.

Last night I was watching MTV's Real World and seen the girls at Mardi Gras lifting their shirts for beads and to me that was a form of racism.

These young girls and women are just so accustomed to lifting their shirts for beads, that I guess it still continues.

I still see blacks and white people discriminating against eachother and people in general discriminating against Gay people.

I feel like people discriminate alot less than just a couple years ago and maybe that is all we can ask for, a slow change. To expect discrimination to go away over not is not practical. As long as we see change for the better, I guess we should all be proud. http://www.flickr.com/photos/firozeshakir/1242218528/

As far as I have seen throughout the course of my life, racism seems to exists for a number of reasons, the most prominent of which appears to be related to xenophobia, or fear of strangers/foreigners. What happens when we view people of different races is that we often become unsure, we become afraid of the unknown. Unknown, because we do not immediately relate to another person who looks vehemently different from us, whether by outside appearance, customs, cultural heritage, etc. We do not know how a particular person was brought up and if we previously heard stories about a person or group of people of a certain race, then our fears are even more pronounced. Whether justified or not, it is oftentimes this worry or fear of a the traits, characteristics, and potential abilities of people belonging to a certain race that makes other rebel against, despise, or even threaten that particular race (even today).

I believe racism exists for a few reasons. The first being lack of exposure to other races where you grow up. Children that don't have interacial experiences when they are young tend to look at other races as different. Next I think there is racism existing for the reasons of economics. Poor people tend to be more racist than people with money. And next would be someone who grows up in a racist enviorment that the Parents are openly prejudice like klan members or skinheads. And lastly as the old saying goes everyone needs someone to s..t on. This is just what you could call open ignorance.

I think racism still exists because there will always be people out there who want to blame their problems on other people. I think these people feel especially good about themselves if they can blame an entire group of people for whatever ails them because they can act almost as though there is some vast conspiracy out to get them.

Most of these people of course would never admit that is how their mind works, but I have no real doubt that they need a scape goat. Some of the most heinous things in our world’s history have been done because someone was able to find a group of people like the Jews to blame for their country’s problems. People with this mindset simply did not vanish from the face of the planet, they are still around, and keeping that level of “thinking” alive.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. Common sense shows that when one is exposed to multiple, similar situations, an opinion MUST be formed. Unfortunately, that opinion might not fit in with guilt-ridden politically correct view that is so prevelant today, even if those opinions are based on overwhelming facts and statistics. REAL racism is the insane belief that people of different cultures are to be forced to interact with acceptance and tolerance. Peoples of different cultures should be allowed to associate with their own kind without persecution, and to be told that one MUST tolerate another culture, (no matter how distasteful it is to you),is utter foolishness. Racism has become a convenient excuse for anyone with hurt feelings, and yet is only applied to one side of the argument. For example,to be proud of your own heritage is not a crime, yet if a white male of european ancestry shows any pride in his background, he is immediately labled as a supremicist. Now THATS racism.