The United States has often been branded the mixing pot of cultures. All are welcome here, or so one is made to believe. But is that really true? Our cities are becoming more and more diverse but in some cases our minds, ideals and comforts are not. There is still an abundance of fear and lack of understanding of one another.
One thing humans are really good at is telling stories. You may not be a poet or a writer, but at some point in your life you’ve told a story. Whether it was the gigantic fish you caught that one time on Mille Lacs Lake, or the scary car accident you almost got into driving home from the cabin, storytelling comes to us more naturally than we might think. But what you might not realize is when you’re telling these stories you’re making connections and relating to those around you.
Now think about this when it comes to strangers, or to those who are of different religions, races or cultures. What if we all stopped and took the time to hear each other’s stories? Everyone has something to share as everyone has lived a life filled with experiences, heartaches, pain and joy. It is within these histories we find connections to one another.
When the word racism comes up the first thing that comes to mind is fear and the second is misunderstanding. But when we know even a little bit about one another, that bridge between fear and understanding starts to form. We start to get answers about why someone might have moved here, or why they pray the way they pray, or dress the way they dress. We learn a truth rather than making assumptions that only create more division. We start to learn their history and when that happens it becomes clear the differences we once thought were so vast between each other, substantially shrink in size.
It’s not always easy to find opportunities to learn about each other and it’s almost certainly not at the top of our to- do lists either, but maybe it should be. Building communities with diversity is a beautiful thing. In learning about other cultures, races and religions, we slowly start to pick away at that fear and replace it with acceptance.
Talk to your neighbors, get to know their stories. You might be surprised to learn you are not that different after all.
