Lenny Bruce used to do a great bit on how we sometimes see prejudice where there isnt any. He noted that a lot of his friends were Christian and, as a Jew, he often felt slighted when they would discuss things like what they were doing for Christmas. He said that he later realized that they werent doing this to slight him. They were merely discussing something that mattered to them and had no intention of slighting him. He realized that he had become so much a part of their group that they had merely forgotten that he was Jewish. The things that bring us together are things we have in common. A group of people of different religions can become friends over something like a common taste in music or a favorite sports team. After they have developed a bond through this common interest it becomes easy to explore the differences and find out more about things like other religious beliefs. This is the main problem with the emphasis on diversity in schools and elsewhere. It forces us to focus on how we are different and hinders our natural inclination to find common ground. Focusing on race, for example, is inherently racist even if the stated intention is to stop racism because it makes race the central issue and ignores all the areas we have in common.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 01:17:27 +0000
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