Racism is when someones racial, ethnic, cultural , or  national  origins or heritage is an accusation of scorn order used degradingly.   Racist attitudes are sometime latent caused by some incident sometime in the past.  The person may not be aware of the feelings and then when some situation arises  or something occurs the hurt from the past rises.

Remarks about national origin, ethnic makeup, speech pattern, behaviors  disguised as humor are often signs of latent racism.   Overt remarks are often denied as being racially motivated because of the social rejection of racism

Beliefnet Posters on USN&P board continuously use name calling, misinformation, twisted information and outright lies to defend their position and to negate the others.  It is not just one side, supposedly the right/left-Republican/Democrat, but both sides.  They take a misspoken word, uttered by a President, Former President, candidate etc., and pretend it is  a major policy error or lack of knowledge. The posters will do this while including a wrong key stroke or misspelling in their posts; that ranks their comment as hypocrisy. Some posters make thought out, well worded comments and use useful citations for reference.  Some of the most prolific posters use clichés, trite remarks and veiled vulgarities repeatedly.  The constant rankled drivel drives away persons who could post informative interesting post that would influence other and contribute to positive dialogue. As it is we must wade through pages of "rankled drivel " to find a post worth reading  and occasionally responding to.