HispanicVista Columnists

Us and Them

 

By Erika Robles/HispanicVista.com

April 25, 2005
 

"The best thing the U.S. has to offer is opportunity, and the worst is racism," Jorge Ramos, anchorman for Noticiero Univision, writes in his book called "The other face of America." Although completely true, discrimination doesn't belong solely in American soil. Discrimination has become a part of life in most countries in the world; the only difference being the intensity which that racism is shown and acted upon.

The tendency to seize upon physical, cultural, religious and nationality differences is not limited to modern times. One would think that after witnessing certain world events like the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis, the genocide exercised by the ethnically distinct Tutsi herdsmen over the Hutu agriculturalists in Rwanda and Burundi in the 90s; the war in Bosnia between Serbs and Muslims; ethnic clashes in Moldova, Guatemala, and the Philippines, discrimination against minority populations in southern Sudan, among others, people of all races, beliefs, and nationalities would have learnt to reconcile their differences and accept one another for who they are instead of discriminating against them for their differences. However, discrimination and prejudice by institutions and individuals based on culture, race, ethnicity, religion or simply a sense of family or kinship still persists in today's world.

"Prejudice and discrimination push people apart instead of bringing or holding people together. Key contemporary patterns of cultural, ethnic, and religious confrontation exist not so much between civilizations as within nations," David Little, director of the U.S. Institute of Peace's project on intolerance and senior scholar in religion, ethics, and human rights, said. "…As part of an effort to create a nation-state, a majority group has sought to assert exclusive ethnic domination over minority ethnic groups, which in response try to evade or restrain the majority's effort to dominate."

Different theories have emerged to explain the reason why discrimination exists. Although it is not a clear cut issue, these reasons help us understand –although not justify- why differences matter so much.

Nationalism is one of the main factors that comes into play when talking about discriminations. "Nationalism is a distorting mirror in which believers see their simple ethnic, religious, or territorial attributes transformed into glorious attributes and qualities," Michael Ignatieff writes on his book "The Warrior's Honor." Nationalism creates a fantasy where differences are a threat, and in order to protect themselves they turn their nationalism into intolerance of whatever and whoever is different from them. Furthermore, nationalism creates communities of fear, groups held together by conviction that their security, their culture, their beliefs, and their race depends on sticking together.

Intolerant people are actively uninterested in learning about those they purport to despise. If only we learn to break down stereotypical images of others and avoid the tendency to overvalue our own identities we would be more likely to be tolerant towards other identities despite our differences.

By using stereotypical images when we think of a certain group of people prevents us from wanting to get to know them, making it more difficult for society to break down those unfounded clichés. For instance, when someone talks about Mexicans, the first thing that comes to mind is "illegals". However, not all Mexicans living in the United States are here illegally. On the contrary, most of them are here in legal status. But by believing in these stereotypes makes it easier for people to justify and legitimize their intolerance or dislike of these particular people.

Instead of thinking of differences between races, ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds as a threat it could well be seen as a positive enrichment. However, people who see theses differences as a threat believe in the illusion that only people like yourself can understand you and therefore people who are different becomes a threat to your well being.

We often forget that while cultures may differ in what they believe, value and respect, all cultures have the same meaning to pain and suffering. These similarities are often forgotten when instead of seeing people as individuals we see them just as "different" from us. The war between the "Us" and the "Them" will prevail until we see each other as humans and nothing else.
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Erika Robles, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), is a writer and translator now living in Eugene, Oregon. She was educated in Mexico City; London, England; and Melbourne, Australia. Contact at: erobleswords@yahoo.com    Web page: http://www.geocities.com/oakspublishing