So one of the things I've learned as time has progressed as a software engineer is that the more time I spend programming, the more I realize how incompetent I am. The amount which I do not know just seems to grow and grow and grow.
For me the same thing has come from politics. I've spent a lot of time reading and listening to not only NPR, the NY Times, The New Yorker, but also right leaning sites like Drudge, Instapundit, NRO and so on. The more I read both sides, the less I am absolutely certain of my view of reality and that my answers are necessarily the best answers. You really begin to appreciate just how much difference there can be with no intentional malice at all.
One commonality I see between both sides is a belief that neither side wants to listen. There is no shortage of idiots on either side, but you'd also be surprised how many thoughtful people on both sides exist. I've read a lot of right wing bloggers state that they have no problem with gay marriage, and yet they get lumped into the same barrel as fervent Christians. Same with Robert Spencer. I've seen a lot of resentment from writers who have attacked him but they're treated like they're all Nazis just because they are both "right wing".
I feel like the problem isn't racism so much as the problem is we've created linguistic weapons that were appropriate 30-40 years ago for a much different conflict. What I mean by that is the weight of calling someone a racist evokes thoughts of fire hoses and dogs and church burnings. But is that the right word for someone who flippantly calls an Asian person "Ling Ling"? Is it racially insensitive? Absolutely! But does it merit automatically going to the nines and unloading on someone with full abandon? Why do we take several malformed sentences as immediate evidence and license to publicly shame a stranger we know nothing about?
The internet has allowed so many people of different backgrounds and makeups to communicate with each other directly. But what I think this has shown is how bad we are at it. How many people in the Bay Area can say they actually know and communicate regularly and productively with a conservative? The problem in my minds is not right or left. It is that we haven't learned the right way to talk to each other that does not increase factionalism and strife. I'm worried it may do irreparable damage before long.
None of this is to say racism is a solved problem in America. Many people alive still remember what segregation truly meant. Those things don't just go away. I am not addressing actual racists either. There is however a large nebulous area where people may have ill formed beliefs, but not because of hatred. What I am saying is that I fully believe that most things that people attribute to malice come mostly from ignorance or fear. If our goal is to unite us all under the commonality of the US Flag, then assuming hostility is the worst way to go.
No one is immune to the words of others. Except sociopaths.