Am I blind, stupid or just overly optimistic?

You know, I have always known that racism existed in the world I just made a decision to not let it be a part of my life. I guess by not acknowledging it on some level, it did not exist. But let me tell you the more I try to ignore it the more I realize that it is alive and well in this great nation of ours. In fact the new generation of ignorance is scary in ways that the old generation were not.
I had a conversation with a young man at work today. Keep in mind that I really liked this kid.(notice the past tense) I might have even had an inappropriate thought or two about him. But have you ever had someone you like open their mouth and the attraction just dies almost instantly? That happened to me today. This boy told me that half of the black population is in jail, that white people are the dominant race, that black people are not nearly as smart as white people and a bunch of other stupid shit. Now Lady loves to fuck with people so I played with this boy's mind for a good while and suddenly it hit me that I did not want to have him in my world anymore because he was serious. After I realized he was serious, I just had to get away from him because I was getting so pissed that my head hurt.
The funny thing is I got pissed because never in my life had racism gotten up in my face like that. Never has it touched me in a way that was so blatant and obvious. I really wanted to believe that people were capable of loving one another despite their skin colors. I did a fine job of living in my own little world but I just gotta wonder how many other assholes still feel the same as this young asshole because quite frankly, someone had to teach him this crap. It just really bothers me to the point where I can say it kinda hurts. Not because people are not being accepted for who they are but because the young people who are being taught this crap are missing out on a whole lot of love by not opening themselves up to all types of people.
Oh well...what are you gonna do?!!!