You're quite right, Dianavan, that "racism" is a word used these days mainly just to divide people. I'm very, very tired of hearing people accuse other people of racism....or sexism, for that matter.

(Not that those aren't real problems...I've just tired of those words being taken in vain by people just to harass and intimidate other people, and that's what I usually see being done when the word "racism" comes up in conversation.)

We all belong to one race: the Human race.

It is said that healthy minds look first at the similarities between various people, while the unhealthy minds focus instead on the differences. Every demagogue who wishes to divide people knows this...and it is the differences that he will harp upon and harp upon endlessly, in hopes that those differences will enable him to foment hostility, and to divide and conquer.

This is as true of Mullahs in Iran as it is of the Bush administration. They both play the divide and conquer game on people.