A lot of children learn through imprinting, from adults or even on the TV. Things like racism are learned behaviors. If a kid shows racist behavior, most likely his or her parents are racists or they are learning some racist behavior from other sources. The news media is particularly horrible with this, look at the way certain ethnic groups are portrayed in the media.

I was a white kid who lived in a mixed race area of Chicago, and most of my classmates were not white. When I went to college a lot of of my white classmates who came from suburbs seemed to hold views that were considerably different from my own. I went to pretty highly regarded undergraduate school, but it was also a disappointment as well, especially considering the attitudes of the student body. Still I thought a lot of kids were products of environment.