Oh, Racism.

I've seen things. Not that I am some gray-beard, capable of defeating any potential objections by merely referencing my years. But by this assertion of ocular experience, you should apprehend the mildly somber tone of my intended discourse.

In the Baha'i Faith, racism is described as America's most challenging issue. This makes sense to me, as racism is not based in logic. There are no proofs one can assemble, no flow charts to be constructed in Powerpoint. Racism is inimical to logic; Anathema to reason.

Certainly there are the obvious examples. Tattered remnants of the KKK that appear like so much flotsam on documentaries. The "N word" thrown about with an accompanying quantity of spittle. But what really bothers me about racism in America are it's subtle manifestations.

I went to an affluent, upper-middle class highschool, and one only had to walk down the hall for a few seconds to hear some racial slur said in jest.

In jest. Ingested. Injustice.

It is more than ignorance, though ignorance is a part. It is more than hate, though hate is present. It is a fundamental misapprehension of the unity of humans, as distasteful to the sensibilities as shouting is to the ear. What a perverse, inverted world we inhabit that we who were born of the same substance choose to differentiate ourselves based on so paltry a thing as skin color.

The subtle things. Jokes about mexicans. Cracks about blacks. The same thrown the other way and rinse, lather, repeat until all is red, red, red. And all to what? Raise ourselves? It doesn't take a genius to realize that there is a difference between raising oneself and lowering others.

Racism really is everywhere, because everywhere there is a lack of appreciation of unity. But the worst are we who occasionally dip into it, like the employee who wins awards by day and steals from the place he works by night. Not quite a full fledged thief but not a character of virtuosity either. It seems to me that we who have freedom have a great burden when it comes to using it. And if there is one thing worse than a thief, it's a hypocritical one.