Following just short of sexism, racism is certainly one of the biggest ism categories, especially in North America where multiculturalism is not just a conceivability, its also a constitutional legal standard. It is not uncommon that certain creeds and cultures have their own way of doing things locally, nationally and culturally. North America, being not only regulated by England and to some degree (up north in Canada) by the French as well, is governed under Common Law principles (which are predominantly multi-cultrurally sensitive) and further, it is home to Native American peoples, all sorts of European descendants, many African Americans and is certainly no stranger to Asians all across the board.
Much akin to sexism, racism can occur in a hard form (hate crimes, violence and slander against others based on race) or softer forms including unappreciation and general ignorance. An Italian fresh out of high-school might think its easy to get a job, where that particular individual has been working in roofing all through high-school and at least 5 friends of his family all have their own construction companies. A single African American mother with 3 children might not have any conceivable connections in which employment is an easy-in. Even this last comparative is based in a generalization some might consider racially ignorant or racially insensitive. Discussing racial oppression is certainly and strongly a North American way of life unfortunately and the finer points of dealing with racism overall at a cultural level are certainly more complex and difficult analytical issues than merely categorizing certain behaviours as racist or merely applying articulably skewed affirmative action principles at a corporate level.
On top of this, racism combined with other forms of either oppression or disdain such as sexism, culturisms, povertyisms or more can tend to really lump a heap load of ignorant statements and opinions on human individuals certainly not deserving of said disdain or mal-intent.