Each individual makes choices in their life. We don’t need to rehash things over and over again. There is also something we call morality which are certain truths which bear out under any circumstances. One of those is racism is evil and bad. At best it is ignorance, but in reality it is a force of evil.
At some point in our lives we should be educated enough to understand that, among other moral truths. If we “have an open mind” on everything, we are first of all not being honest with ourselves, but also not allowing ourselves to be guided by universal truths that have been given to us by God. For example, I doubt if you need to really consider “all truth claims” of Jeffrey Dahmer about killing and eating human beings to understand it is wrong. His reasoning for doing such acts does not lend itself to enlightening us about the evil of what he has done really. The act is enough. For me, that is the same for racism. It is wrong, period. And, if you know someone who tries to cloud that truth with some hyperbole, just ask them then why would it be wrong for others to be racist against them?
If you reread your post you will note that your last paragraph does not logically match what your first paragraph states. Are you saying in the second paragraph that you do not wish to discuss with people who disagree with you?
You are correct that some things are evil in and of themselves. Racial hatred is a good example. We know this because God has revealed moral Truth to us. Since this Truth tells us that hatred is not of God , we may therefore know with certainty that hatred is immoral under any circumstances.
However, determining the truth on matters outside of faith and morals is not so simple. The only tools we have with which to judge the truth or falsehood of a given claim of fact are our reason and experience. In order for us to do so, reason requires that we first define the terms of the claim, then seek objective evidence to support the claim from as many sources as we can find. We then weigh the evidence in the light of experience, and finally render a judgment.
Let us examine by these means the core claim of racism: that persons from one racial group are innately superior to persons from another racial group. In order to address this claim, we must first define what constitutes a “racial group”, then define what we mean by “innate superiority”. Once these steps have been completed, we may then examine the evidence that tends to support the claim (if any), using our experience to decide whether any given item of evidence is credible or not. Only by doing so could we hope to judge whether or not the core claim of racism is true or false.
It goes without saying that none of these steps has yet been accomplished in our society. The question itself is considered unthinkable, as your post proves. We have no universal definition of race, no scale by which to measure superiority, and no way to determine if a demonstrated instance of superiority is innate or learned. Until we have these things, we have no way by which to know if the core claim of racism is true.
Abesent these, all we have are statistics and personal experiences, and each can plausibly be offered as evidence to support the claim that people from certain races tend to be superior to people from other races in specific areas of performance. We know from statistical data that persons who self-identify as Asians tend to excel at taking standardized tests, for example, while those self-identifying as black/African tend to excel at long-distance running. It is therefore true that members of Racial Group X actually are better at some things than are members of Racial Group Y. To deny this is to deny reality.
But even if some evidence were to come along someday demonstrating to a scientific certainty that one of the races was superior to the others in every area, and that this superiority was genetic, what of it? Superiority would only morally obligate the “master race” to act as a protector and caretaker of the “lesser breeds”; it would not be carte blanche to exploit them, and hating them would still be morally wrong.
Racism is the claim that one of the races is innately superior to the others in every area. Is this claim true? While I’m willing to entertain the question, the evidence I’ve seen to support various such claims of superiority hasn’t been substantive enough for me to judge it to be true. I judge individuals on an individual basis, and groups on a group bases, in the light of my personal experiences. It may be that some races truly are innately better than other races, but based on my own judgment I’d guess that each race has its own unique superiorities and inferiorities.
What I do know is that it is wrong for a person to hate another person, on the basis of race or any other factor. This claim is one upon which I think all men of good will and properly formed conscience can agree.