I grew up in a small, mostly white town. This was back in the 80's, and the thing that strikes me the most is that nobody thought about race. People didn't hate anyone, and the idea that everyone was equal and the same was obvious. Once we grew up and got out of high school, we saw many unfortunate things. I had a friend in the army stationed at Fort Hood in El Paso. She told me how much the Hispanic community hated white people. She said it was difficult for her children in all Hispanic schools. My brother in law worked for State Highway, and had to help with flooding in a mostly black city. He was threatened often, and a bus full of children went by where they yelled about raping him with various objects. Now, and this is sad, whenever there is a murder or a bank robbery, it is a black person that ends up on the news 70% of the time. We are starting to get graffiti, and shoes hanging on power lines. I and most of my friends didn't grow up hating anybody, but it is bad when minorities are calling us evil and saying they hate the country. Generalities are stupid, and no group is all one way or the other, but there are large numbers of people who don't seem to have any intention of getting along. It never gets more vicious than when a conservative minority speaks out. The ridicule and insults hurled at them is startling. The media is trying very hard to make things worse, and they never say the reasons Republicans don't like Democrats is not skin color, that is stupid, but the fact that republicans just don't want the government controlling every aspect of our lives and oppressive taxes. Individual freedom, where everyone is equal, is what I believe in.
I don't use the media to formulate reality for me ... usually my own vision, hearing and comprehension does a adequate enough job. Everyone has their own life experiences ... even at my age, there are a lot of things I personally haven't experienced. 12 Men have walked on the Moon, 6 of them have actually driven on the Moon, and yet most people believe them.
