Racial differences have also been a source of some of our biggest battles. Always, from ancient times to present day; at every possible scale, from nations to households. It can be relatively harmless (jokes, segregated parties, and prejudices); or it can turn to riots, violence, and full-scale battlefields.
And it is so easy to assign all kinds of bad things to the others. Easy and lazy. It is much harder to look inward and see where you go wrong. It’s easy to hide behind arbitrary and abstract excuses like lack of respect or freedom of speech. It’s also much easier to just blame the one big group, rather than (fairly) singling out those who should be singled out. And to top it off, we have never made ourselves inferior to others: We have a survival instinct. We gladly step on each others toes. We’re not going to give in or give up.
Racism is relative I say. It used to be a tribal thing to not like the neighbours. Now we’ve gone to group tribes as races. I’m still waiting for the moment when some guys from outer space start thinking Earth is a great place to own, and thus decide to wipe us out, just like in Independence Day. Maybe then we might upgrade from intercontinental to interplanetary racism.
We have to be strong. We must strive to be stronger than we are now. Look inwards and be fair to ourselves. Don’t look for excuses. Assign credit and blame where it’s due, not just blindly pitch it in a general direction. Look strong AND show humility at the same time.
We have to make divisions between people we like and can relate to, and those with whom we can’t. Our world is too large to understand otherwise for our feeble minds. That does not mean this division is based on race. It is also not based on culture, or religion, family ties, football team allegiance, sex, interests, or character. It is based on all these things and none of these at the same time.
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