" Exploring Race and Culture "

Hello and welcome back fellow tolerance troops.

In this edition we're going to explore what race and culture have to do with defining and shaping human existance, human experience and human interaction.
We all start off developing our view of the world by our family. Our Mother, Father, siblings and closest relatives and friends. The language or languages they speak to us, the neighborhood we grow up in, the institutions we attend or belong to, the food we eat, the customs we learn, the holidays we celebrate, and the God or Gods we worship, all conspire to shape our earliest conception of who we are.
Customs become increasingly important as we age because we assimilate several different types of customs. The most dominant of these is internal or family customs. Those things that are unique to your close and extended family environment. Then there are the sub-primary external customs we learn. The neighborhood or village customs, and the religious customs come next. Regional, and work or play customs are somewhat lower on the scale. Finally national and racial customs are near the bottom of the scale.
It is from this framework that we start to ascertain for ourselves what is normal from what we perceive to be abnormal. We feel comfortable with what we think is normal and develope a distaste for anything outside our comfort zone. This uncomfortable state can grow into outright fear without knowledge. Assumptions and generalizations justify the fear. Hatred becomes a natural extension of that fear.
Then we start to become educated. Something as simple as going to a new neighborhood or a new school starts to expand our view of the world as we know it. We may begin to see different types of people who don't look like us, or don't sound like us. They also may not dress like us or worship like us. The more educated we become inside and outside institutions of learning, the more we begin to see others as normal. The more we travel outside of our culture and begin to empathize with others from differrent cultural, national, or racial backrounds, the more our comfort zone expands. An interesting phenomenon occurs. We start to become uncomfortable with others whose definition of what is normal in others is narrower in scope than ours has become. We then start to view these people as abnormal.
I would like to provide an example of this from my own extended family. I have a close friend whom I consider to be my daughter. She is from a southern European Nation and is very close to her Mother and Aunt. She is well travelled and highly educated but her Mother, who has a fear of flying is not as well travelled. She happens to be in love with a wonderful young fellow who is not of her race or nationality. However I believe that there may be some reservations held of this union of two people in love by her Mother and her Aunt. Like any parent or close relative they want the best for her. The issue then becomes what is in the best interest of their daughter and niece. Is it in her best interest to develop a relationship with someone who is closer to her own ethnic and national backround, but is not nearly as educated or well travelled? What would they talk about? How comfortable would she be with this local fellow? Most importantly how happy would she be? I hope for my European Daughters sake that her Mother and Aunt have considered these questions. I also hope that they will let these two young people decide for themselves their own future.

In the next edition we'll examine Human Conflict.

Yours in Humanity,

Phillip Sr.