Building classroom community

My class has been talking about building a sense of community within the classroom. I feel this is a very important topic. I hate to see classes that are divided and believe me there are. Unfortunatley I worked in a school were racism is still a very touchy subject. The girls didn't have issues but the boys definately do. I think that in these situations it isn't always the childrens fault. They come from homes were moma and daddy think and talk in such ignorant ways and so the children come to school and model the parents' behavior. This is hopefully where we can come in and encourage friendship, understanding, and a sense of community. I hope to make it very clear that those types of behaviors will not be tolerated in my class at the beginning of the year. Right after making that statement I hope to give the students multiple opporutnites to work with different groups so that they learn about each other.