I have a hard time watching the news, especially these days. News channels are full of hate and crime and immoral acts and ideas spreading across the nation. Breaking news has been flashing across televisions for months of police shootings, riots, and protests, not to mention the political turmoil intermingled in it all. I know sin has corrupted our beautiful world, but it is hard to watch the decay of the human condition.

Racism, especially, has cropped up again as a forefront issue for today's leaders. While we know that racist people and ideas are always present, through recent events it has emerged as a huge national issue affecting not just those living in cross-racial areas, but affecting everybody with a TV, computer, smartphone, radio or with access to any type of news stream. Especially in a global economy, it is a major issue we must face.

Let's think closer to home. The United States alone is a big place, with differing views and experiences of race throughout. I live in Georgia and attend school in Pennsylvania.

When I'm home on breaks, I come into daily contact with men and women of different racial backgrounds than mine. It is something I took for granted until I left to attend school 700 miles away and realized that not every community has the same multiracial exposure that I have had and that they don't precisely know how to act around those who stand out.

Oddly enough, I found myself conforming to my environment. Even though I have had several friends who look and sound different from me (and several strangers), I began to hesitate and stammer and overthink my words when talking to an individual in an ethnic minority when away at school. Over time, I started to avoid making conversation because of a growing fear of offending them. I was embarrassed to talk to them, and eventually began to think of them in exclusively racial terms.

I was shocked and embarrassed at my behavior. I started to ask myself the blacklisted question: Have I been a racist this whole time and didn't even know it? But then I came home again, and my inhibitions were gone almost instantly. I got back to work and again had encounters with individuals of several different ethnic backgrounds on a daily basis. It was comfortable and natural; I would even go so far as to say there was a feeling of "home" about it. There was no awkwardness because nobody felt awkward. We all live together, we all shop together, we all work together. We respect each other. It's normal.

I turn on the TV. Caucasian policemen are shooting African American men; both Caucasian and African American police are shot by angry citizens. Accusations, defenses and mutual disgust are responses from common civilians. Everything's in upheaval.

Why does this happen? What causes someone to be racist? What is the difference between being completely comfortable at one end, and growing awkwardness and a deepening sense of differentiation at the other?

I would have to say culture. There is nothing different between Mexican, Caucasian, African American, Indian or any other "type" of people. There are no types of people. There is nature and there is nurture. Nature comes to play in personality, intuition, etc. Nurture, or culture, affects everything else. If there is a problem between whites and blacks, then I am convinced it is because of the culture in which we are raising our children.

I am part of two different cultures now, at school and at home. Both are good, I would say. One, however, has not had the same kind of multiracial exposure as the other has had, resulting in a culture much less comfortable for minority groups. That is something that needs to be worked on, not ignored or postponed. My school is a good place, but this is one of its major weak points. So I will help.

I will do my part as well as I am able. I can help change society by being a positive influence on a piece of it that I have control over, so helping those who live in it now and so leaving behind a better one for the generations to come.

Author's Note: I speak from personal experience and so this article is written from a very narrow point of view. I do not mean to lessen the seriousness of racial inequality or claim to understand every individual's motives behind racial remarks or actions. For those who can find a level of comfort, encouragement or purpose in my testimony, I share my story.