Everyone in the United States will experience prejudice sometime in one's life. Discrimination has had negative effects on human relations for many years now, from slavery that began in the 1600's to the modern situation of a person walking on the other side of the street to avoid a confrontation of a person of another race because of long-held prejudices and stereotypes. One definition of racism is belief that members of one or more races are seen as inferior to members of other races.
Racism is widespread in the world and has caused many problems.
Racism in the U.S. has been mainly directed by the white majority against ethnic groups such as Black Americans, American Indians, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and people of Chinese or Japanese ancestors. The result has been white domination and discrimination against those groups throughout our history. Even teens of today experience situations of prejudice. An interview with a 14-year old African American shows it is unavoidable, even for a person her age. As we asked her questions a number of questions related to race relations, she tried to answer them as truthfully as she could.