And racism depends on who you are and how you perceive it affects you. Jesse Jackson once admitted that when he is walking alone in a rough black neighborhhod, he is afraid of being mugged by a black man. Does that mean he's racist? I doubt it. Does that mean all blacks are muggers? No. But that attitude exists, and it is communicable.

It all depends on the circumstnaces. I do know that in the 60s, if you were a hippy and walked into a redneck bar or truck stop you could almost count on getting hassled. Now that's not officially racism because race isn't involved, but when you go somewhere and you sense, rightly or wrongly, that people don't want you there and are just dying to inflict violence on you, it makes an impression.

Since young black men are frequently involved in crime, being afraid of young black men is not surprising. If you're mugged by someone of YOUR race, though, you normally don't become afraid or suspicious of your own kind. If you're a young black man with no intention of doing anything wrong, having people be afraid of you all the time, or cops stopping you to question you without any good reason, just might turn you into a racist against whites.

And people being what they are, all it takes is one incident for someone to think "See, these people are out to get me, so now its OK to hate them and get back at them."

Its not always race, either. I believe the origin of most racism is not skin color, but culture, economics and social class.. I know I feel uncomfortable and uneasy around Puerto Ricans, becasue of some bad experiences I had when I lived there (they knew I was Cuban right off because of my accent and they don't like Cubans). I feel prejudiced against rednecks for similar reasons (athough I have nothing against white people). The English, are racist about everybody, including the Welsh, Scots, Irish, Americans, Europeans in General (especially the French), and even among their own countrymen of different economic and social class.

Out west, they often hate Native Americans, In parts of our North West they despise the large Russian immigrant community, and so on.

When communities are segregated, especially if they are in conflict or competing for jobs, etc, racism (or cultural chauvinism) tends to develop. Most people, of course, are not like this, but once that animosity gets started, you start judging every action of the OTHER much more critically than you judge it if it is done by one of YOUR tribe.