Within reach.

Editor,

White supremacy, racism, and xenophobia enjoyed fertile ground in both imperial and settler-colonial societies for centuries before globalization resulted in human civilization becoming multicultural as a whole.

No one lives in an isolated place anymore, and every culture has dispersed everywhere. Old, local social hierarchies feel weak and artificial because they are; they could always only be enforced with violence. Now everybody lives on the same planet, part of one human race.

Some people find it painfully hard to give up the advantages bestowed on them by the status quo; others find the disadvantages it foist on them no longer possible to endure. So the transition isn't easy, and there are political actors out there from religious extremists to right-wing ideologues who take advantage of instability to further their own ambitions.

But if there is one positive consequence of the intimacy we find has been thrust on us -- leaving aside the virtual destruction of the life support systems of the Earth -- it is that conscious understanding and mutual acceptance of each other is within reach.

Re: "For French Muslims, a Moment of Truth" (1/13/2015)