Kids seek out the familiar.
Sometimes race isn't an issue. Jocks seek out jocks, nerds seek out other nerds and most times their common ranking in the caste system overrides the race factor. Cliques and factions arise and they turn to castigating anybody not of their kind and different. It doesn't get more different than skin color, howver, to be fair, it's not just whites picking on minorities, that street goes both ways.
I think racial integration, for the most part, is a success. You have pockets of resistance, like our beloved former Gov. Faubus
, but overall it seems like it worked.
You just don't hear about the good things and the bad things get way too much attention and blown way out of proportion.
I think the vast majority of incidents aren't even racial, but one story about white kids picking on black kids and suddenly everyone screams racism. Sure there are instances where race is a factor, but there are just as many instances where race wasn't a factor.
It's hard to believe, but everybody gets picked on from time to time and sometimes, just sometimes it has nothing to do with race. Sometimes they're just assholes.