Racism, as a tactic, will be with us as long as there is racial difference among human beings and as long as there are those who would like to use that difference for their own purposes. This is because racism as a tactic, a tool, has historically been used to single out a group of people for special treatment. Slave-based societies of 16th through 19th century provide the perfect example.

European enslavement of non-Europeans, i.e. Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, etc. used racism and inferior vs. superior racial ideas to justify the conquering and colonizing of foreign lands and the enslavement of the people of these lands. (see: Racism: A history at TopDocumentary.com.)

In the U.S., as with previous slave societies, racist ideas enjoyed official support. That support came through social institutions, i.e. religious, educational, and legal institutions.

The U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, under Chief Justice Taney in 1857, ruled in the Dred Scot Decision, “the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

Religious leaders promoted these ideas, with some quoting the Holy Bible story of Noah, who cursed the generations of one of his sons, Ham, who they identified as the dark-skinned son of Noah, to forever be “servants”. Educational institutions and the scholars who ran them promoted racist ideas and segregation.

Nazi Germany, declared Jewish people a separate race of people and proceeded to do what all racism does, single out these people for special treatment.  

The abatement of racism began in the U.S. with its abolishment of slavery (See Emancipation Proclamation ) and removing the socio-economic roots of racism, i.e. Preferential  treatment under the law, access to free and cheap labor, better public services, education, jobs, etc. than the oppressed race. 

Secondly, and more importantly, racism has been abated through education.  Most racist ideas today were fermented, propagated and promoted under the old slave society. Science, in post-slavery U.S. has done a lot to dispel these convenient myths and outright lies,  proving that we are all more alike than we are different.

Integration in the U.S. has also done a great job of removing most of these old, once useful, racial myths and lies. As the races began to mingle and mix, some of the most obvious and blatant racial myths and lies are exposed immediately as they failed to stand up to reality. 

Religions in post-slavery U.S. now preach tolerance and respect for differences and biblical historians, with the discover of biblical scriptures like the Dead Sea Scrolls, no longer teach or support the teaching of the story of the Curse of Ham as the story of the curse of slavery being placed on black people. Finally, U.S. law post-slavery, now allows no laws to stand that discriminate against citizens based on race.

So, a lot has been done to abate the growth and use of racism in our society, but racism will still exist as a tactic, whenever the need arises to single out a race of people for special treatment.