I'll cut to the chase--I don't think racism HAS a future.  But first, I want to define it--for the purposes of this post, racism is "the belief, speech, or actions based on the idea that certain racial or ethnic groups are inherently and irremediably inferior in some moral or intellectual way to some other groups."  In brief, this idea has no future because it is outmoded; confined to small non-mainstream groups; and  morally and intellectually bankrupt.

By outmoded, I mean antique--an artifact of earlier and less evolved days.  Some apologists for racism like to cite Thomas Jefferson (a slave-owner who fathered children by one of his chattels) and Abraham Lincoln (who believed that blacks were indeed inferior and should be segregated from whites).  These men were products of their times; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, few people -- other than the victims themselves -- were fully cognizant of the evils inherent in slavery.  (Granted, slavery--particularly sexual slavery--continues to this day, but in the world at large it is largely underground.)  In those less enlightened times, to be racist--and sexist, for that matter--was be part of the mainstream majority, and such beliefs were held not only acceptable but respectable, to a degree which many educated people of today find ludicrous.

At that time, both the science and religions of the time supported racism.  Today, reading historical scientific and religious arguments for racism is like stepping into a sort of time machine, going back to a time when physicians thought that bloodletting was effective therapy, washing hands was silly, and the use of anesthesia was either totally unknown or a faddish luxury.

So, why does racism even exist today?  Well, old ideas die hard--there are still people who believe that every word of the Biblical myths are literally true; still people who believe that the center of the earth is hollow.  Another thing--racism is fear-based, and there is no lack of fear-mongering going on.  The so-called Low Right does a good job of this, as do some Conservative Christian leaders (who tell their flocks to hate and fear gay people),  as do  politicians who tell us to hate and fear Muslims.   The recession is another factor--people who have lost their jobs often look for convenient scapegoats.

Many racists are simply pathetic white people who need someone to look down on in order to feel good about themselves, as they are incapable of any productive, positive or loving accomplishments of their own.  (Of course, racism is not confined to whites--many Chinese are racists regarding the Japanese and vice versa--and Chris Rock once observed that the most racist people on earth are old black men.   However, the most spectacular manifestations of racism--the thousands of lynchings in the Southern US and the Holocaust--were largely the work of whites.)  Much anti-black racism seems based on the perceived fear of black males supposed sexual prowess and/or imagined propensity for violence.  But there is also an economic aspect.

The ideas of Marx (Karl, not Groucho) have largely been discredited by history, but one remains valid--the economic basis for racial discrimination.  Take the Old South--the rich plantation owners had no doubt that their slaves were their inferiors, but some genuine affection DID exist.  This is in strong contrast to the poor white people in competition with blacks for jobs after the abolition of slavery, whose virulent  and fear-based hatred for blacks manifested itself as violence.

This said, why are there now 946 recognized organized hate groups in the United States, more than ever before?  I think this is largely a collective result of years of fear-mongering, both on the part of politicians pandering to the masses in order to exploit them, and irresponsible media like Fox "News" looking for ratings. 

Another factor, but one which would be enormously difficult to document , is the ending  og the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.

One of the more annoying aspects of modern media is the tendency to editorialize everything.  An event isn't just an event--it is "shocking" or "upsetting" or "terrible."  I really like Brian Williams--the CBS anchor--but I am sick to death of hearing him apologize for the "awful" news about the economy,.  But I digress.

One of the most egregious examples of this tendency is that everyone  who has a disease, it seems, "suffers" from it.  This is not only sloppy usage, but  presumptuous.  How the heck do they know how someone with a disease feels about it?  They imply that suffering is mandatory--it is not.  Pain may be mandatory--suffering is optional.

For instance, I am afflicted with ME/CFIS.  (I know, "afflicted" has overtones of Tiny  Tim and his wee crutch, but the word is far more accurate than "suffers from").  It is a complicated affair, with a raft of symptoms--in brief, my moving parts don't always work, and often hurt.  Sometimes I wake up in the small hours with such pain I get out of bed and take some Aleve.  Other times, I will be out and about and a sudden spasm of pain will make me draw up short, grimace, and limp and gimp out to my car using my shopping cart as a walker--this is inconvenient.  But I refuse to "suffer" from it.  I endure it--not always with a lot of grace, admittedly, but I endure.

I got  a crash course in the subject of pain vs suffering a few years ago.  I was on my way home from town, in a hurry to open up my stand (which involves taking folding tables  and heavy boxes of merchandise out of the back of my vehicle), and as I was getting into my car after my last shopping stop, I slammed the car door shut on my left index finger.  The pain was  so sudden and intense that tears sprang into my eyes, and I felt dizzy, disoriented and nauseated.  Pain?  Oh yeah--but I didn't suffer.  My thought ran thusly "Wow!  What a rush!  I have got to learn to be more careful!  Gee, I wonder if my fingernail will turn interesting colors and/or fall off."

I could easily have chosen to suffer by thinking this way--"You fool!  You idiot!  How could you be so stupid?  God, I hope I didn't break the darn thing, I don't have health insurance.  God, it is so awful to be poor.  Oh no, what if I can't open my stand because of a broken finger!!  Boo hoo, poor me." Buit I didn't.

Thing is, when we choose to suffer, we often do so by failing to live in the moment--by making rash assumptions of future pain or disability, or by labelling us or the situation.  When we experience pain, for any reason, we often focus on the idea of the pain--which makes it more intense--rather than simply focussing on the pain itself--which lessens it.

Bottom line--we create our own reality.  One way we do this is by putting labels on what happens, and by failing to live in the moment.

By living fully in the moment, and by accepting everything that happens to us, we can minimize pain and eliminate suffering completely.

Pain is mandatory; suffering is optional.