"Transcending Racial Divisions: Will You Stand by Me?" by Christine Louis Dit-Sully
Transcending Racial Divisions: Will You Stand by Me?, by Christine Louis Dit-Sully Can humanity transcend racial divisions? It might seem like a quixotic venture, given how pervasive race-related thinking still is in society. Not a day goes by without a race-related controversy flaring up somewhere. Ideas about race are a key battlefront in today’s so-called culture wars . And yet there is not even general agreement on what race means. Although most people are unable to explain clearly what they think races are, they have an intuitive sense of what they mean by racism : most decent people abhor genocide and ethnic cleansing, support laws against racial discrimination and hate crimes, have no problem with interracial relationships, believe that national identity can co-exist with multiracialism—and regard calling someone racist as one of the most damning accusations possible. Being against racism is a creed of our liberal, multicultural society. And yet, ideas about r...