What keeps us apart?

What is it that divides us from each other?

While we all have different backgrounds and different stories we all have the ability to connect to one and other. We all have struggles, good days, bad days, childhood struggles and things that we’d like to change about ourselves and others.

This all comes from our history which shapes who we are today by the by the experiences we have had both directly by remind then using as a guide and indirectly via experience.

I had a conversation with a sixty some year old African American woman who I work with. We’re friendly but don’t talk much because of the nature of the job. But today we sat in the break room together and chatted.

We had genuine laughs and connected as people.

I then started thinking what keeps us apart? In actuality nothing. I could throw out a bunch of bullshit answers and then explain why they’re false but I’ll spare you the philosophical exercise.

Then the question is if there is nothing dividing us what is there dividing me and a terrorist/guerrilla/freedom fighter? Well language and location separate us but those can be overcome by modern technology.

What separates us are artificial divides placed by people for some reason usually for the advantage of a military or leaders.

The basic steps are simple: divide and dehumanize; a more insidious version of divide and conquer because while your enemy with divide and conquer is still someone you in theory can know, in divide and dehumanize by definition the enemy cannot be known because they are not human and not on “our” level.

Look around its used a lot on Soviets during the Cold War, Germans during WWII, homo-attracted and bi-attracted people for a long time, terrorists, drug dealers during the “war” on drugs, African Americans pre-civil war/pre-civil rights/pre 3/11/03. (oops, did I just imply that we’re pushed not to see African Americans as human?)

So whats the way to get out of this? Make people human by talking with them one on one or in groups.

While best left to individual connections there are a few notable structured programs such as Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations and Hello Peace | Hello Salaam | Hello Shalom that come to mind.

So to answer Rodney King’s famous line “can’t we all just get along?”

Yes. If we talk.