Can racism be learned without being taught? It can. Negative views about people based on their outward appearance can be made without a conscious lesson being taught. Take for example the television series COPS. When the series began over a decade ago the majority of the perpetrators of crime shown had dark skin and appeared to be of African-American decent. This played upon the fear of gang members in LA. Recently with the immigration from South America becoming a hot button issue the amount of Hispanic looking perpetrators has all but taken over for their African-American counterparts. They are considered the new COPS bad boys.

Although no one sat little Johnny down and said “These are the people to fear Johnny.” Little Johnny by constantly seeing portrayal of a type of person with a behavior is bound to eventually form an opinion based on what he has observed on TV.

Racism can be learned without being taught through lack of exposure to different cultures. A child growing up with exclusive exposure to one ethnic group or culture and their preconceived ideas about others as heard in conversations of adults can indirectly teach racist ideas. The adults would not profess to be teaching racism yet by not exposing their children to positive experiences with people of other ethnic groups and cultures they passively set up an idea of “us and them”. They are something different from us, not the same. This can encourage isolation and intolerance of the way other people are.

People may become exposed to racist viewpoints and ideals through humor. Though humor can also work to highlight these racist ideas in ways that promote discussion about the ridiculousness of racism, however that comes after an individual has formed their own opinions about how they will address people that look differently or have different cultural traditions from them.

As a human takes in stimuli and observes the world around them it is only natural for them to make inferences about the situations they experience. Prejudgments of others come from a survival instinct that humans feel to want to sort out their world in terms of safe or unsafe and friend or foe. Humans are tribal and territorial by nature. However in order to assimilate into a global culture. Even to fully blend into what might be considered truly American above all else, we must challenge ourselves to take a moment beyond our initial impression of another person to judge relationships on the “content of one’s character.”, as was Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.

Racism does not have to be actively taught to be learned. A person by example and modeling behaviors may create a far deeper impact on another than any taught lesson ever could. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of oneself in action and reaction to others if one does not wish to spread the social virus of racism any further. Racism is a negative lesson that can be learned without ever being consciously taught.