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In reply to the discussion: I awakened thinking that on top of being insane, [View all]PatSeg
(47,586 posts)I have repeatedly seen first hand what a big difference this makes in people's attitudes towards others. For many, it has come from working with people from different ethnic backgrounds, where they are surprised to find that seemingly "different" people aren't really all that different.
Living in diverse neighborhoods really helps as well, especially if you have children, who are more inclined to socialize with children of different races. This eventually brings the parents together, who find they have more in common than they'd thought. Get some mothers together to chat while their children are playing and they all have similar stories. I've lived in places like that and I loved it. You stop seeing race or ethnicity, when you start to see the actual person and share your common experiences.
It is the separateness that tends to separate us and in the long run as humans, we are more alike than we are different.