Racism the mere mention of the topic usually results in hushed muttering as people pretend to ignore the discussion or it turns into a shouting match leaving the whole room pissed off. To some extent these are understandably reactions. Racism has always been a sensitive nerve throughout the world, but especially in America, a land of immigrants. For most people, talking about racism is like tiptoeing through a minefield, but some are absolutely okay with discussing the topic, even though they rarely have the chance and often fall into a religious zeal that would shaming Hitler's hearing talent; which often leads people to fall into the first category, terrified of incurring anger for being "racist" or having the wrong mentality. Why have we given such power to a little two-syllable word? History has given us many reasons to fear the word, with the long list of atrocities attributed to the race; but by failing to have open, fear-free discussions of the topic, aren't we simply allowing another trail of tears or another holocaust to occur? The functionalist perspective believes that the solution to the social problem of race is assimilation in which an ethnic minority loses its cultural identity to join the dominant group. Which they say is consistent with the image of America as a melting pot; Assimilation, they believe, allows a society to maintain its balance if all members of the society, regardless of their racial or ethnic identity, adopt a dominant culture. When I hear functionalist perspective theory, all I can think of is the word cult. The idea that a group is forced to give up their cultural identity to conform to the norm is not the America I know and love. America without its diversity, without its countless b... middle of paper... is the smallest link in the chain. It starts with us, it starts with us tackling these problems head-on, understanding them and integrating small-scale solutions into our daily lives. Too often with social problems, we believe that the only power for change lies in government but, as Obama said during a speech to Congress, “our predecessors understood that government could not and should not solve all problems” is a lesson we missed. but we must recover if we hope to progress as a society. Humans often see society as a single point in time, but in reality it is a long line stretching from the first humans to the unpredictable future, and in our hands we have the ability to turn the point on the line we occupy into a high point or low. point. Progress is slow and difficult, but every little progress we make today makes the lives of the next generation easier.