Racism is a hostile attitude to members of other races, based on the inherent belief that our own race is superior.

We learn by taking an interest in something and finding out how it operates.

The information we glean of other races is rarely easy to obtain, unless we move and live amongst them. The barriers are huge, language being a main stumbling block. Small children will communicate without language and their observations of difference mean as much as that girl is wearing a red skirt and I’m wearing trousers’, a simple statement of fact, not riddled with innuendo.

Racism occurs when a problem is identified and the single common thread of differentiation is a difference in race.

The media is our main source of world information. We learn from what we see on the news and read in the daily papers, our window on the world. Headlines blaze with atrocities happening in far off places and provide us with names to identify and separate the perpetrators. The views related are not unbiased, it is impossible to relate an event without it being coloured by ones own personal values. The judgement is given from our standards and ethics, without acknowledgement that other cultures and religions do not share the same vision. At times we only see a snapshot, a glimpse, of an event that has been unfolding for generations. We seem to radiate the opinion that if others do not embrace our life style then they are barbaric, substandard human beings.

The headline states the name of the race of the perpetrators and the readers absorb this and accept that this type of antisocial behaviour is carried out, not by a minority of dissatisfied individuals who have decided to take the law into their own hands, but by their race in general. The name of the race then becomes synonymous for that specific type of behaviour.

So the pieces of information we are exposed to are, in the main, from these types of headline news items. The general public rarely has the time or interest to delve to find anything deeper.

In our own narrow lives racism only becomes an issue when something unpleasant happens to us, we lose an opportunity at work or we fail to secure a house; then we identify the problem, not as our own failing but because these people, a minority in our country, are being given more than a fair chance. It starts at school, with children opting out of assembly if they have a different religion, or being allowed to wear non-uniform clothing. All differences should not become exceptions for privileges; but be accepted facts to enrich our lives with variety of opportunity.

Racism is being learned by example, by continual reinforcement by the media and by the events of history that filled our school days. Society needs to adopt a fairer way of telling us news and identifying who we are. Surely in a job application it is more relevant to be told our ability and skills in the job rather than our religious inclination and race.