People are shocked, shocked that President Obama says Americans are racist in their very nature, their DNA. Of course he is correct.
What he didn't say is that virtually all human beings are racist by their very nature. It is human nature to reject those unlike ourselves. Go around the world, find any two peoples who live side by side and they don't like each other.
The Swedes make fun of the Norwegians, and vice versa. Both bullyrag the Danish, not to mention the hated Germans.
The Brits don't like the French, or anybody else for that matter. The Scots don't like the Brits, the Irish don't like either group.
Japanese dislike Chinese and the feeling is reciprocated. Most of Asia hates the Japanese, almost as many dislike the overseas Chinese who live among them.
Muslims are a thorn in the side of whatever society in which they are found, and they are that thorn because others irritate them so much. The Arabs hate black Africans and the Persians hate the Arabs.
In Latin America those of European descent and the indigenous peoples dislike each other. Both resent the imported Africans among them.
Many of the differences indicated above are not strictly speaking racial, although others are. The greater point is that most of us most of the time automatically find those unlike ourselves irritating.
The "unlike" can be based on race, religion, culture, language, sexual orientation, social class, caste, or political leanings. It says to us that person is "other," not one of our group, potentially a danger.
