Combating racism and xenophobia is an ongoing task. Many people believe that the racism problem is solved or are unaware of its existence or, even worse, know it exists but don't care. Much of the problem is not overt malevolence, but ignorance, insensitivity and indifference. The challenge is to make individuals aware of racism without preaching or triggering guilt, which simply closes minds and increases resistance.

The concept of modern racism, in contrast to old fashioned racism, is distinguished by three core characteristics: denial that discrimination is still a social problem; resentment about the social, educational, and political gains of minorities; and antagonism toward programs that promote social equality.

Research on Modern Racism has linked prejudice with a personality construct known as “need for cognition”. The theoretical link between racism and need for cognition is the normal cognitive process of stereotyping people to understand individuals belonging to a racial group different from the perceiver's. Stereotyping has long been recognized as a cornerstone of prejudiced thought. Changing prejudicial behaviour requires relatively effortful cognitive processes, such as: consciously resisting the use of racial stereotypes, being open to value systems of minorities and acquiring and accepting information about minority groups that contradicts their own belief system.

Assuming that racism produces intolerance, hostility and violence in the society, educational institutions should redress this problem by incorporating special educational programs into their curricula. However, using conventional pedagogic practices such as lectures, readings, and films, had limited affect on reducing prejudice and racism. Antagonism and resentment to changes in values are difficult to overcome because they are defensive emotional/motivational reactions to antiracism programs. By adopting the bottom-top approach and by displaying information about minority groups MOSAICA can serve as a tool for promoting not only a cognitive change among people, but also attitude changes. Rather than preaching or imposing solutions, MOSAICA targets the emotional/motivational components of antagonism and resentment by reflecting the tradition, art, and way of life of diverse cultures, thus, creating opportunities for cognitive changes and changes in values.