The dark side of the pack.

We are pack animals; tribal. We pick sides easily because it's in our genes- a survival trait from thousand of years of evolution. BUT it doesn't serve us when we are not in a do-or-die situation and we can't discern, or separate individuals from the pack. It's laziness. If you throw someone in a box, you already have the labels on the outside and don't have to think about it, but you also don't get to learn about the individual. I had someone jump at me once, saying 'what the fuck do you know about prejudice, whitey?" But he didn't get to hear about how I was in fights when I was little for having dark skin and got called 'n**r' plenty of times, including by my own father. I had a young kid tell me that Italians were 'mud people'....
The fright wing media makes a living at separating us into packs so that their corporate overlords can keep us weak and un-focused. That's how they get away with all the looting and pillaging they are doing.
Just look at the way some were ready to label Trayvon as a thug, or argue over whether or not Zimmerman is white or Hispanic.
It's WAY too easy to lump everyone into one group and takes a little discipline to not be just as fucked up as the idiots who watch Fox or kiss Glenn Becks ass, or want to re fight the civil war.
Not all blacks are thugs, but there are some. Not all Hispanics are drug dealers, but there are some; not all whites are racist assholes, but there are some. And there are thugs, racist assholes and drug dealers of ALL stripes. Hatred, stupidity, delusion, self aggrandizing, and general 'assholiness' crosses lines of race and gender. If you can see the person past the tribe, you might find an ally.