If racism was really as common as the media makes it out to be,they would call it 'NORMAL'
I do not think it is as common as that though have encountered it quite often from the local black community as they are often the first to bring up color in conversation.
I grew older while an air force brat and so often relocated and found few problems as a child,so I can only surmise that RACISM is TAUGHT by parents and elders as so
it will be up to the elders to set the example to effect a cure.
The media does call it a normal occurrence at times.
Its worth noting it does not need to be common to be a problem (for example, mass shootings are exceedingly uncommon, however many we agree with advocate people being armed or getting medical training with this amongst the reasons).
It is absolutely up to elders. We have to be sure to model proper behavior. Politeness does not eliminate racism, it simply hides it. Those who are prejudiced yet polite, their kids see them when their guard is down. Even a kid who knows and thinks it wrong likely stands a chance of adopting the behavior or a variant of it later in life. Sort of like abusive behavior.
This does not mean you cannot have opinions on social issues, but one must be very precise. To give an example with sexism, have you ever seen someone who disagrees with the actions of an individual but cannot avoid couching their displeasure in a way invoking their gender? This piece of paper didnt get processed so they call the individual a "b*tch" or the like. It mentally associates the individual's gender with their performance. It is intellectual laziness.
Of course, there needs to be maturity on all sides. A person has to be able to express legitimate concerns in a constructive way wtihout being accused of crypto-prejudice. "You say the problem is a neighborhood culture of no snitching, that is just a veiled way of blaming black people." That is not helpful, because then issues cannot be discussed. This inevitably though, leads us to the problem that some people DO use factually correct and more precise terminology as substitutes when they really do want to ascribe issues as inherent traits of ethnic groups.
Ultimately, racism is a heuristic technique that allows people to place a simplified model of understanding on the world. They do it for all sorts of reasons. Common ones include they were taught to, they dont want to take the time and effort to do otherwise, they dont have time to do otherwise, they are lazy, it is in their own self-interest (such as making them feel better about themselves without any effort), maybe just because they are *ssh*l*s.
I personally believe racism has declined because as the general quality of life of the world has allowed it. Most do not work 18 hour days in the field on the slimmest margin between life and death, they have relatively more education and have been afforded more time to observe the world and finally media, travel and leisure time has given them more time to observe the world and realize it is more complex than some oversimplified models of humanity. They do not have to make a split second choice on the matter.
Unfortunately, this means that if forces, re-regionalize and localize the world, as people live closer to the edge (spending more time staying not dead and have less time to understand the world) and basically as people get into their own bubble (because of self-selecting media, not having media or simply not giving a damn about external information) racism and prejudice in general will grow again.
