Are people so shallow as to judge a different person by their skin and nationality as being evil?
Are people so shallow as to let a single facial flaw or un-treatable disease affect their judgement?

Ha ha! I'd never thought of that before... that's a good point! I'd say that the only problem is that the only racists I know are guys, and guys don't tend to go tanning. (I guess they want to be tan, though...)

It's not so much that people are more obsessed with appearence now, it's just that in the past century, the upper and middle classes in the developed world have expanded drastically, meaning more people have more money. This allows us to worry about things like appearence, which turn ot to be not so shallow after all. There's mountains of research out there that suggests that people judge eachother in the first fractions of a second after they meet. It's not a cultural thing, it appears to be hardwired. It makes sense if you think about it, in order to survive and prosper, a human must be able to use split second intution to come out on top. It was like this hundreds of years ago, and it's like this now, only we have complex cutural standards factored into it.

So yes I guess we are dumb like that

What's REALLY shallow, and hypocritical as well, is when racists tan. This is not an argument against tanning so much as racism.

Why do we put so much emphasis on appearance? Because we're dumb like that.

Yep, we are THAT shallow.

Depressing, isn't it?

I'm just getting to the point now when I can really check myself before making a split-second judgement of someone. Even people with the best intentions struggle to overcome it. The worst thing is when you make no effort to fight it at all. It's then that people start to lose all clarity of judgement.

Question everything

Yes ppl. are so shallow no a days, but for the most part it's not all our fault. If one has grown up on the mentality where: BEAUTY IS EVERYTHING- then it's not one's fault if one acts that way. THen you ask: Who can we blame-if not ourselves? Well I don't like pointing the finger (all the time) but the Media does contribute a great deal in why ppl. spend so much time and go to the EXTREME just to look a certain way, etc. THe media says thin is in, fat isn't. You need to have this type of hair, shave your legs, be this weight, this tall, this nationality and all of the above! THe media, pressure, family/friends-some plant into our minds that we have to be and look a certain way to be SOMEBODY! But that's not true, we all just need to love ourselves and be our own choice of character.
Also, one can be one's own worst enemy. Sometimes it's those around you who are warning you (Like maybe your anorexic or bulimic) your thinking to yourself: I'm FAT, and those around you are telling you: Look, honey... Your SICK! EAT SOMETHING! So yes we can be our own worst enemy and shallow people, but who can you blam? And what is being down so many out there won't have such a low, negative self image?