What the hell....is Racism?!!

WHAT THE HELL AM I TALKING ABOUT:I've never really understood racism, what is it about my skin pigmentation that makes me believe I'm better than someone else? Does my skin colour really make it easier for me to get a job, walk around a supermarket without security following me around or determine my intelligence?

1994 spelt a change for the South African people. No longer were laws going to prevent races from mingling freely, or separate each other. The nation was now united! Change had come right?!

My perception, however warped, is one shared by many of the millions of South Africans my age. Having been born in the late 70s and growing up in the 80s and 90, we've lived with Apartheid and seen the coming of freedom. My thought is that no matter how we try and change our mind sets, the ideals of racism affect our every thought, conversation and way we look at each other. There's no getting away from it.


Here's an example, The South African population was split up into the following groups, White, Black, Indian, Coloured.
1. Within the "White" catergory there is a split between the English and the Afrikaaner.
2. Within the "Black" catergory are all the tribes living within the borders e.g Xhosa, Zulu, Pedi etc.
3. Within the "Indian" community, their are various peoples split down religious groups and geographically namely, Hindu, Tamil, Moslem, Arab, Indian etc
4. Within the "Coloured" community, originally known as people of mixed ethnic groups, but generally equated with people of Khoi - San origins.

The interesting legacy which maybe Apartheid or perhaps general Human Nature has left us with is a tendency to not only judge each other based on the aforementioned groups but to judge each other within groups.

Things like, is your hair curly or straight, do you speak English or Afrikaans, is your skin lighter than mine, and thus we have mini racial splits within each and every group.

Daily occurences whether it be amongst friends, in the workplace or even driving have deep racial and even gender prejudices running through them. We see a rich "White" man, it's because he got money from his parents, we see a bad taxi driver and we think all "black" people drive this way and my favourites, we see a "Coloured" person and we wonder what he's going to steal and the list goes on and on.

QUESTION:
Can we actually live in this beautiful country of ours and not judge, degrade or torment each other but live in splendid harmony or is that just an idealistic thought which can never be achieved?