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Thank you for all the responses thus far. I have only now caught up on them, soi i figured it was time to put my own thoughts down.
To me, the purpose of racism and pretty much any other -ism i can think of is this: power. not only the attainment of power, but perhaps more often the maintainment of it. when one is in a position of power, one has a vested interest in keeping that power.
Now, in response to OFKU0, much of what you say is true, but i would debate one point. I dont see any evidence that we have gotten less racist as a nation. we have gotten SMARTER about our racism, that much is certain, but it is still there. (we still have work to do to get smarter about sexism, but thats a thread in itself)
The pendulum has swung the other way, and now it is no longer socially acceptable to be blatantly racist, but there are many ways to do it. the wage disparity, the unexplainable multiplication of unemployment rates, the lack of social/political power and mobility are the effects of a continued discrimination. Granted, there are some very powerful, very influential minority figures, but they are the vast exception, rather than an indication of the lack of racist pressures.
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