I think what will actually happen is that racism will decrease, until nobody thinks much of it, but that means it will come back, as people aren’t watching for it anymore.
The only thing affected will be what is considered a race. Ultimately there will always be people who make bigoted statements, and treat people unfairly due to their membership of some group. I’ve seen it here amongst people I’d consider the least racist (by the current defintion). I deal with it in myself.
I guess I’m not really saying much that anyone else didn’t say. I guess I’ll just add my opinion of Chief Pedant’s thing: If there are genetic differences between races, I doubt it will have as much to do with the race itself, and instead more to do with their social history. The inner-group differences will be much more pronounced than the external one.
It will continue to be an issue because of the achievement gap leading to some groups being underrepresented in professional roles. As those populations increase in number they will press for more equal representation. That will obviously create tension because people will feel the process is racially skewed to force equal outcomes. For example:
There is a rationale behind cultural discrimination tho’. For example, how many western-raised muslims want to go back and live in the countries of their ancestors? And how many muslims want to come here to our democratic countries?
Cultural xenophobia has no legitmate basis when it simply means that Northern Irish who fail to go to Catholic churches on Sunday are in conflict with Northern Irish who fail to go to Presbyterian or Church of Ireland churches on Sunday. It has no rational basis when a person moves from the Southern U.S. to the Northern U.S. to find manufacturing work in the 1930s through the 1950s and encounters prejudice based on his or her accent or when a person moves from the Northern U.S. to the Southern U.S. to find work (or to retire) in the 1980s through the 2000s and encounters prejudice because of his or her accent.
Xenophobia is directed at anyone outside one’s own “tribe” or “clan” and it has no need to be logical. Trying to rationalize it based on one’s own prejudices hardly makes it more rational.
I assumed that racism would lessen over time, mostly because it is absurd. Growing up, I went to public schools that taught racism hurt everybody–using concrete examples that affected us. I was surprised when I compared notes to my college classmates that was not the usual practice, and most thought that would be too controversial to teach in school!
I was even more surprised by the number of bigots and casual racists that I have encountered as an adult. It is sad and scary. I don’t see how it is going to get better if we don’t actively teach against it.