<table> </table> Many people want to blame classism for impairing some Americans, but two recent studies show that racism remains the biggest U.S. monster.</p><p>Instead of joining together to fight this common foe, people feed the beast so that it continues to let some advance while forcing others into the dark corners of despair. It is an uncomfortable part of black history, but the problems won&#8217;t end unless they are exposed so they can be eliminated.</p><p>A fall FBI report on hate crimes lets people know that the problem is trending in the wrong direction. Bias-related criminal incidents jumped 7.8 percent from 2005 to 2006.</p><p>Race remains the biggest problem. The report said 51.8 percent of the 7,720 single incident cases were racial bias; 18.9 percent, religion; 15.5 percent, sexual orientation bias; 12.7 percent, ethnicity/national origin; and 1 percent was against people with disabilities.</p><p>The report found that being black in America continues to be a lightning rod for hate. Of the 4,737 single-bias hate crimes, 66.2 percent were anti-black. But hate crimes don&#8217;t all go in one direction. The report said 21.3 percent were anti-white; 6.1 percent were against people in a multiple-race group; 4.9 percent were anti-Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1.5 percent were anti-American Indian/Alaskan Native.</p><p>Of the 1,233 cases that were ethnic/national origin bias, 62.4 percent were anti-Hispanic.</p><p>The study found that the greatest number of hate crimes, 31 percent, occurred in or near where the victims lived.</p><p>People point to the noose incident and fight at a high school in Jena, La., but such cases were also reported in Kansas and Missouri in 2000. According to the FBI data, Kansas had more hate crimes reported than Missouri did with 109 compared with 78. However, Kansas had more agencies supplying data with 49 compared with 26.</p><p>But it is easy to hate when people of different races in the U.S. continue to live in mostly segregated communities. A Pew Research Center report found that &#8220;blacks remained the nation&#8217;s most segregated racial or ethnic group.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Roughly three-in-ten Hispanic and black students attended schools in 2005-06 that were nearly all minority, with fewer than 5 percent white students,&#8221; the Pew Research report said. The numbers have gone up since 1993-94 when they were 25 percent for Hispanic students and 28 percent for black students.</p><p>A re-segregation of America is taking place. The courts and U.S. communities have withdrawn from the civil-rights driven initiative like President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew U.S. troops from the South, ending Reconstruction and beginning a long period of separate and unequal conditions.</p><p>The Pew Research report said 62 percent of African Americans vs. 40 percent of whites favor residential integration. The study also found that only 23 percent of whites think it is more important to have racially mixed schools vs. 56 percent of blacks.</p><p>Equal education is unlikely to happen in the U.S. if whites &#8211; with the historical privilege of getting the best &#8211; won&#8217;t share with others. Stereotypes, prejudices and bigotry will continue to boil over scarring more people with hate crimes.</p><p>The problem won&#8217;t go away unless everyone helps to end the hate. The good news is that despite the differences and disparities, there is still hope that hate crimes can end and true integration with shared privileges can occur.</p><p>The Pew Research report found that eight-in-ten whites and blacks have maintained a favorable impression of each other. That can be the foundation for better relations.