Racism is a subsection of tribalism. Tribalism works in the lives of everyone, everywhere, from sports teams to inter-profession rivalries, from national interactions to political fights. More importantly than that, tribalism is insidious and will find a way to thrive no matter how happy or content, or homogeneous, a given tribe is. To quote, "Cause at the end of the day, long as there's two people left on the planet, someone is gonna want someone dead. "
Often, scholars insist that one of the major differences between tribalism and racism is that racism is rooted in -irrational- means, whereas tribalism is a grouping bias based on semi-rational means (normally negative interactions with other tribes). I tend to disagree with that on its face, as without the associations granted by tribalism, racism would not be possible, but that's a matter of personal preference really.
Take a look through history, if you will. All throughout human history we've subdivided ourselves by tribes. From the early days even to the modern era, we all define ourselves as something, or some group, or another. The Byzantines considered themselves Romans, Italians supplanted their nationality with their tribal name, the Lombards. The Gauls, though all agreed upon being Gauls, were subdivided into tribes within their tribe. In Africa, tribalism ruled, where tribal warfare and conflict, or flat out kidnapping, were the instigating factors of slavery to the white men (and other black tribes as well).
Racism is just the natural course of -irrational- tribalism. The belief that one "Tribe" or another is morally, ethically or technologically superior by birthright, judged rather crudely and simply by the arbitrary factor of "Race". Even now in America, you have tribal divides of every stripe. Pro-Anti-Choice, pro-anti-Second Amendment, 1% vs. 99%, Democrats versus Republicans, you can go on forever, and both "Tribes" insist with 100% certainty that they are morally and ethically in the right. Racism is just one line of a millenia-old laundry list of subsidiary tribalism trends. In truth, as far as "major problems of life" go, racism ranks pretty far down that list on a global, or even national, scale. Tribalism, on the other hand, is a significant and persistent threat to the vast majority of humanity at large. End Tribalism and you'll end Racism by default.
At the risk of bringing down a boatload of shit on myself, I'll go further than that. A large part of tribalism, and racism, and most other sorts of "isms", is that it's a two way street. A tribe can only act against another tribe so long as the other tribe -is- a tribe. I've long pondered this, and have come to the conclusion that so long as we identify -ourselves- as some sort of group (black or white, men or women, gay or straight, American or Russian, et cetera), we are opening ourselves up to massive degrees of tribalism and every subsequent "ism". We are identifying as a tribe, and in doing so, we are giving power to those who may oppose our tribe for either rational or irrational means. If you're interested in a thought experiment, make a day of just asking people something along the lines of "Hey, what are you?" Those with a prominent focus on race will answer "I'm black" or "I'm Polish" or something similar. You may also find people who respond "I'm a Carpenter" or "I'm in Retail". Those people, were I to hazard a guess, are those with no irrational preoccupation with race and are the least likely to hold any particular views towards racism. (That said, it's not exactly a scientific study, so your mileage may vary.)
If you want to truly end the perils and pitfalls of tribalism, you'll do so when you can convince people that they aren't what they say they are, but simply "Human".
(P.S./footnote: Even "Human" is a form of tribalism, in relation to the rest of the natural world, but as my up-post quote says, so long as there's two people... Long post short; Tribalism and all of its associated benefits and ills will -never- cease so long as there's even one thing to identify two particular tribes. )
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