[quote=CA renter]
If a white man was mugged by black men on three occasions (but never by a white man, even though he lives in a predominantly white neighborhood), I’m willing to bet he would end up with “racist” tendencies. A general dislike of certain (perhaps violent, vulgar, or otherwise offensive) behaviors found in other cultures that are linked to race might also make one perceive that race in a different way…and feel some disdain for them, generally.
[/quote]
I’d probably view this case as a stereotype initially. Maybe stereotypes turn into racism at some point. A young male middle eastern looking traveler gets on my plane by himself, I’m probably somewhat suspicious. I have good reason to be because of the historical evidence on who tends to hijack planes. Now if I decide that all Middle Eastern people are evil terrorists because a small majority are and have committed terrible crimes then I’ve probably moved into the realm of a racist.
It’s pretty clear this kid hated white people but you’ll probably never know if it was from bad experiences with white people or from some kind of learned behavior. You can’t necessarily fix the bad experiences, some people are going to be racist and he might have come across some of those people. You can probably fix the learned distrust and negative view of white people in the black community. I just don’t think the leaders of black community are ready for reconciliation of past wrongs yet.
Eventually the black community is going to have to fix itself if it wants to get out of it’s impoverished state. Nobody is going to do it for them and it’s not going to be easy. As long as they’ll willing to rely on excuses of racism rather than doing the hard work it will continue to be the same.