There’s a question that keeps surfacing in conversations across dinner tables, classrooms, workplaces and online spaces:
“Why’s there still so much open racism in our world?”
Why, after centuries of progress, globalisation, education and breathtaking human achievement, do people still judge others by the colour of their skin, the sound of their name, or the heritage of their ancestors instead of the content of their character?
The truth is both uncomfortable and illuminating: racism is not a modern invention.
It’s an ancient wound and one humanity keeps reopening because it serves someone’s purpose to divide and rule.
The fear that built a thousand walls
Long before nations existed, human beings survived by forming tribes.
Those inside the group were safe; those outside were a threat.
This primal instinct of “us versus them”, still pulsates beneath the heartbeat of modern civilisation.
We like to believe we’ve risen above it.
But fear has a way of resurrecting the past.
When people feel insecure, uncertain or overwhelmed, they cling to tribal identity and tribal protection.
Skin colour becomes a shield.
Prejudice becomes a boundary.
And fear, if left unchecked and unexamined, hardens into hatred.
Racism isn’t always born in malice.
Often, it grows out of fear and the most primitive fear of the unknown.
A child is never born racist
As I watch my own 5 years old grandson interact with other children on a playground or at his Kinder, I’m buoyed by what I see. They don’t hesitate. They don’t compare shades of skin or accents. They connect through laughter, curiosity, imagination and the innocence of genuine friendship.
Racism enters later.
It arrives through careless jokes at the dinner table or stereotypes whispered as “facts”. It thrives as biased stories passed from generation to generation and segregated neighbourhoods where the “other” becomes invisible.
Racism is not inherited in our DNA.
It’s absorbed through our environment.
Humanity didn’t build racism overnight.
And it won’t dismantle it overnight either.
But it must begin somewhere.
The politics of division
In every era, there have been political figures who recognised something dark but powerful:
It’s easier to control a divided population than a united one. Let that sink in.
Blame becomes a currency.
Anger becomes a tool.
Minorities become convenient targets when leaders want to distract from corruption, inequality or economic decline.
History tells us an unsettling truth:
Whenever politicians stoke fear, the flames of racism burn brighter.
The hunger for someone to blame
In times of economic hardship, humans look for a simple explanation. Someone easy to point at. Someone different to lay the blame on. Across centuries, this has repeated like a broken record:
“They’re taking our jobs.”
“They’re changing our culture.”
“They’re the problem.”
But racism thrives not because the scapegoat is real but because the fear feels real.
And when fear feels real, reason becomes irrelevant.
When racism becomes acceptable again
Today, racism no longer hides in the shadows.
It walks the streets openly in protest rallies with symbols and slogans that encourage hatred and division.
It spills across social media.
It erupts in parliaments and newsrooms.
It’s normalised by influencers, commentators and opportunists who exploit anger like a business model.
Old prejudices that once whispered now scream with rage.
Lines once unthinkable are now crossed with ease because governments and society allow it.
Humanity wasn’t prepared for how fast digital platforms could spread hate.
We built technology faster than we built ethics.
So how do we heal this ancient wound?
Ending racism is not just about laws, policies or punishments.
It’s a transformation of the human heart and the human story.
Here’s what truly works:
Education that doesn’t hide the truth
We must teach honest history not convenient history.
Children need to learn about both the beauty and brutality of the past.
Only then can they understand the weight of injustice and the cost of repeating it.
Education must also nurture empathy.
Empathy is the antidote to prejudice.
Exposure to the unfamiliar
You cannot hate someone you truly know.
Racism disintegrates in the presence of real human contact and through shared meals, shared work, shared experiences and shared stories.
The moment people see each other as human rather than categories, the walls begin to crack.
Racism survives because too many people stay quiet and ambivalent.
The racist joke that remains unchallenged.
The stereotype uncorrected.
The bias left untouched.
When ordinary people speak up kindly, firmly, courageously, they reset the norms of society.
Silence and political correctness protect the problem.
Courage dismantles it.
Choosing leaders who unite, not divide
Leaders set the emotional temperature and nature of a nation.
When they elevate compassion, society rises with them.
When they weaponise identity, society fractures.
We must back leaders who reflect the world we want, not the world we fear.
Building fair and equal systems
Racism thrives where inequality lives.
Fix the systems in policing, education, healthcare, opportunity and we deprive racism of oxygen.
Teaching people to see themselves honestly
Every human carries biases.
The brave ones confront them.
The wise ones transcend them.
The mature ones transform them.
Racism weakens when individuals develop the emotional intelligence to question their own assumptions.
The human family – our forgotten identityAt the core of all this lies a simple, profound truth:
We belong to the same human family.
Different skin.
Different stories.
Different origins.
But the same longing: to be seen, respected, valued and safe.
Racism isn’t just a social issue.
It’s a spiritual crisis and a forgetting of our shared humanity.
A future worth fighting forImagine a world where a child’s opportunities aren’t shaped by prejudice.
Where diversity is not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
Where people see differences not as dangers, but as treasures.
Where history is no longer a warning but a teacher of wisdom.
This future is possible.
But it will not appear on its own.
It requires each of us to rise above the fear we inherited and build a new legacy for those who come after us.
Humanity has overcome wars, empires, plagues and tyrants.
We can overcome racism too.
But only when we choose courage over silence, compassion over fear and unity over division.
Because the world we leave behind must be kinder and braver than the one we were born into.
And it starts with YOU!
-COLIN DEOKI lives in Melbourne, Australia and is a regular contributor to this newspaper. The views expressed in this article are his and not necessarily of this newspaper.
