“Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. He seeks to divide and destroy. It is the enemy of freedom and it deserves to be confronted head-on and trampled. » These wise words were spoken by Pierre Berton, author of non-fiction novels. In our society, racism is everywhere, and it has been in our past as well. Racism is ruining our world and it is becoming tolerated. It is a threat to our society because it affects not just one person, but everyone involved, whether it is the bystander, the victim, or the person who was racist. Many people have their own definition of racism, but Google defines racism as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially in order to distinguish it as inferior or superior to one or more others races (Google). Many people approach and deal with racism at varying levels of extreme. In one case, when a white woman was an airline passenger, she was troubled by the fact that the man sharing the seating area with her was a man of color. She then called the stewardess and told her she needed a different seat because she felt like the colored man shouldn't have been allowed to sit next to her. She. Taking the complaint, the stewardess then spoke with the pilot and discovered that there were no other empty seats in his class, the lower class, but that some were open in the first class seats . The stewardess returned and apologized to the woman for the inconvenience caused by the seat and explained the complication. Instead of taking the woman to first class, the stewardess told the black man to gather his things and follow her to first class ("Racism" - news). Not everyone deals with racism the same way. S...... middle of paper ......e Black Chick. February 18, 2014. Conservative Black Chick. Internet. March 19, 2014. “Racism.” National Association of Social Workers. 2014. National Association of Social Workers. Internet. April 4, 2014. “Racism.” NEW. Short Stories.com. Internet. April 13, 2014. “Skin color and race. Together." 2014. Together. Internet. March 19, 2014. Shah, Anup. "Racism." Global Problems. August 8, 2012. Global Issues. Internet. March 19, 2014. Van der Valk, Ineke. “Racism, a threat to world peace." International Journal of Peace Studies. January-February 2009. . Tomorrow's World. April 28, 2014. Winant, Howard. “Racism Today: Continuity and Change in the Post-Civil Rights Era.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. March 19 2014.