Sounds like a fun thread to which to add.
Something that often gets lost in the conversations about racism is the manner in which it is expressed, felt, etc. While I'd go so far as to say that the US is one of the least racist nations overall, like any report card there are areas that get an "A" and areas that get a "C" or worse. A mother's concern about her black son getting pulled over and (potentially worse) while driving is an example where we would not get an "A". Probably not even a "C" in some parts of the country, and we are not that far removed from routine "D" and "F" grades in some places. Any of you who have black friends (or whose kids have black friends) know the DWB (driving while black) issues and the speech that is drilled into every black kid by their elders when they get their driver's license.
Having said that, another category could be profiling. While we don't rate an "A" there in a lot of cases, we are far ahead of most places that I have been. I could give examples if you like.
Overt racism...chanting the N word being an example...is different from institutional racism (redlining mortgages, for example). We've got a long way to go, but we've made a lot of uneven progress in this area.
Ultimately what most (not all, but my anecdotal guess is over 80%) people here in SoCal seem to agree upon, regardless of which side of the political spectrum they reside, is that the key is to attempt to provide equal opportunity. That is hard to do when the schools are not equal in different areas. It is also hard to do when both parents have to work and at least one ends up with evening working hours, which is more common in some areas than others. Those same sorts of job options/conditions also act to limit parent involvement in the school system. None of that is surprising, or a great revelation, but it does hamper the "opportunity" side of the equation. We've made progress in that area...after school day care (including study halls), breakfast and lunch, ESL classes, etc. We've even had school districts move back to providing school bus service (which had about vanished here 15 years ago). It is clear that there is not a "one size fits all" answer, and sometimes it feels like 2 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back, but people of good will continue to try for positive momentum.
I can't let this all go without commenting on the racism experienced by Central Americans as they cross Mexico, attempting to get to the US. While some tell me that this does not count as racism because the ethnicities are in some cases similar, I don't know what else to call it. I am surprised that we have not been able to fix the temporary work visa situation; it seems to have become the new 3rd rail of US politics, in place of social security. Why the Bracero program was dropped and nothing took its place is beyond my understanding. Whether you agree that we need & want immigrants or not, it is clear that as long as a system permits illegal immigrants, it increases the chances that they will be taken advantage of by almost every link in the chain that pulled them here.
OK, more red meat for the mildly unhinged to use. Still, a major issue, and people of good will ought to be able to continue to make positive progress.
