I am, not surprised; but, somewhat dismayed with ...

[JDPriestly]

102. Rwanda was not a fantasy.

Nor is ISIS.

It is important that we recognize the universality and the universal danger of discrimination regardless of what it is based on.

They gypsies who died under Hitler's Third Reich would probably agree with me that discrimination and hatred of the other is not necessarily race based. People find excuses to hate someone who is different from themselves. It makes the hater feel so secure and smug and proud to be a part of his "group." It just feels so good to be part of a group that is differentiated from the other and, of course, according to the bigots in the group, so superior to the other group, if not on the basis of some strange idea of racial superiority, then on the basis of some other grounds for superiority, even being the object of the discrimination of the other.

And so, we have to be forever vigilant of what it is in ourselves that identifies so strongly with a religion, a race, whatever, and that makes us feel afraid of or superior to those who do not qualify as members of our "special" group.

Fact is that Americans who have ancestors who have been in this country for many generations have no claim to ethnic or racial "purity" assuming such a thing exists. The human race is said to have started in Africa, which means that the most racist white person may owe his existence to Africa. Racism is just the desire to belong to a group defined by skin color and perhaps a few other physical characteristics, real or imagined, and puff oneself up by claiming to be superior to those who do not belong to that group. Any characteristic will do: I'm blond. I'm brunette. I'm Christian. I'm . . . . . . . . It goes on and on. The hatred and the arrogance, the cruelty, the effects of this constantly recurring human pattern of prejudice are what must be fought.

The economic basis of slavery prevented most black Americans from becoming equal. The lack of the possibility of owning property, of obtaining education in the early years of black culture in the US, many factors that were and are basically economic make overcoming racism very difficult. I believe, however, that the economic bases for racism would be much easier to end than the social ones.

My neighborhood, for example, is very mixed, and there is little if any discrimination. But that is California. We just live with people of all races and religions and take it for granted. There are still parts of California, parts of Los Angeles, in which that is not yet the case. I feel pretty certain that a lack of discrimination will become the rule here if not in the rest of the US.