"Evil can only be defeated by kindness between people. 

Kindness demands courage!"

 Sergeot Uzan (who lost his son Dan in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in 2015)

 

Racism is the number one topic again, due to another death in the land of the liberty of weapons, which is medially used by all sides. The outrage is huge, the separation is even bigger.

 

But not only in the US people have been discriminated because of their colour of skin or their origin. Racism is a global phenomenon with different signs, permeating all of human history.

 

Why is that?

 

 

Racism as Default Mode

 

 

We could argue, that our brain is to blame. It is constantly searching for patterns and similarities, which soon turns into a boomerang when it comes to social perception. Thus, we often extrapolate from singularities to the whole, in order to think faster, finding ourselves in a world full of prejudices, in which some groups' characteristics are being blown up in their faces.

 

Furthermore, our brain is very prone to anxiety. There are many stimuli, putting it on red alert, because they appear as potential threat. Moreover, the Amygdala, our fear brain, has to react very quickly, therefore it is a real milquetoast when it comes to people or things that differ from our usual experiences, or that appear foreign, behave differently, or even look differently.

 

As you can see, our thinking organ doesn't make it easy for us to be open for anything new and other cultures. This is aggravated by some adverse factors, which completely finish off Homo Globalis.

 

 

How to Build a Racist

 

 

A further phenomenon promoting racism is the so-called learned helplessness. It develops only, if human beings have the feeling, that they cannot achieve anything, no matter what they do. People, who have always experienced this powerlessness, are tremendously susceptible to enemy stereotypes, transported by polemic politicians, because in this way, they can project their fears onto other people.

 

An environment, in which obedience plays a big part, is another fertile soil für racist world views. That is because people who dutifully follow orders, refuse to take responsibility for their actions. This was not only cruelly proven by the Nazi Regime. The famous Milgram Experiment has shown several times, that human beings, who blindly did what they were told, were even ready to kill others, just because a guy an authority asked them to. These people said that it was not their fault, whereas others who took responsibility, broke off the experiment.

 

 

Finally there is also the phenomenon of habitualizing, a form of deadening, which seems to be helpful among some groups of professions like doctors, but even there, it has some negative side effects. Many patients often have the feeling that they are rather seen as case, and not as human being. The same is true for the police, where habitualizing also seems to harden its members too much.

 

The result is that through this deadening contact to others is being objectified. Therefore people are being deprived of their human qualities. In this way, individuals or groups are demonized, or just perceived as objects. This also happens to persons, that are repeatedly confronted with violence, and are thus stupefied.

 

 

How It Does Not Work

 

 

If you think now, "Thank God, I am not like this!", then I have to point out, that you are on the verge of taking on exactly the kind of attitude, that you want to distance yourself from. Because if you are convinced that you are morally superior, you basically practise a hidden form of racism.

 

In other words: Meeting discrimination with discrimination is clearly absurd and not really helpful. The same holds true for intolerance, ridicule, insults, or any other form of violence.

 

 

Pressure always generates counter pressure. To explain somebody that their views are totally wrong, will not get you very far. Unless, you are the first person who is able to convince a xenophobic guy, that everything he believes in is bullshit, because you are the bearer of the ultimate light of truth.

 

We also could track down all racists and lock them up, preferably in concentration camps. But then we would also have to lock ourselves up. Or, we get off our high horse, to find our civil courage, that is constantly whispering in our ears, what to do instead.

 

 

Özlem and Her Courageous Way

 

 

Özlem Mekic came from Turkey to Denmark when she was a child. She managed to become the first Muslim representative in the Danish parliament. This resulted in her getting many hate mails, apart from the daily discrimination she experienced. But maybe you should listen to the story told by herself in a wonderful TED talk, she gave in 2018 in New York.

 

 

 

Your Courageous Way

 

I hope, you are as impressed by Özlem's example as I am. I have summarized the most important insights for you.

 

The first step is to acknowledge that you as a human being are not better than others, your position is not more valuable, you are not superior to anybody, we all share the same human dignity.

 

 

This will be easier to accept, if you are able to distinguish between a person and their behaviour. This kind of differentiation can be helpful for you entire life. For me as a father and teacher it was a real game changer. Besides, you have to admit, that we all tend to do the strangest things from time to time, sometimes we do not even know why.

 

The next insight is to understand that we all have more in common than you are conscious of, or that you want to admit. Once you have realized this, you are not able to demonize others anymore.

 

 

The best way to find out these similarities is by starting a conversation. As soon as you have a real connection to another person, you recognize, that even those, who commit acts of cruelty, have loveable characteristics.

 

When you understand this, you are ready to realize, that we almost never fear the other people, but rather the potential "monster" inside of us. That is why we do not want to have business with those, that remind us of that. And the more separating we discover, the apparently easier it seems for us.

 

 

But if you are humble enough, you become aware that you do not have to be afraid of anybody, especially not of yourself. Then the door is open for your to feel and lilve the connection to all human beings, full of kindness and love.

 

This is when you step in to a new, amazing world, full of variety, magic and new, that is worth discovering. Believe me, this world and the people on this planet are worth giving them a loving chance. Have the courage to a bridge builder. A bridge builder like Özlem.

 

I wish you all the best, and would be glad to hear from you on wolfgang.neigenfind@visionbord.com

 

with love,

 

Wolfgang