We humans have a natural tendency to seek out our own. There’s a great comfort in being surrounded by people similar to ourselves: conversations flow more easily, empathy takes less effort. One could make the case that there’s actual virtue in racial and ethnic separatism.
Fortunately, nature has played a funny trick on us: Running parallel to our desire to exclude is an absolute imperative to co-mingle: we need genetic diversity to survive. What a beautiful conundrum – inspiration for countless legends and love stories. Our mind tells us one thing, while our biology strongly disagrees.
We all understand that marrying one’s cousin can lead to genetic problems in one’s offspring. Science might in fact suggest that we marry as far away from our cousin as possible – that those forbidden crossings of ethnic and racial boundaries are actually our genetic best bet. Biology is trying to tell us something important: that hybridization sets the stage for unexpected synergies, and is not just healthy, but downright groovy.
From this perspective, America’s secret sauce for success may actually be the degree to which, as the “melting pot of the world”, it has enabled human cross-pollination on an unprecedented scale. At no time in history have so many cultures, languages, and genes co-mingled so freely.
It’s curious how, from the outset, we’ve both celebrated and discouraged this blending. Humans seem deeply programmed to fear “others”, and this habit seems hard to shake. Of course a scapegoat is always handy, and vilifying others has the added benefit of strengthening group cohesion. But will the day finally arrive when humankind acknowledges this inherent contradiction between what we think we want and what we need?
Throughout history, political leaders have exploited our tribal inclinations. One of the promises of the Internet is that such manipulation will become increasingly difficult, anyone with a smartphone now able to broadcast a dissenting view to the world. Of course the Internet has also become a platform for polarizing propaganda campaigns of unprecedented scale, but this is probably a necessary step in the right direction. Confronted with so much noise, people are, hopefully, learning the value of healthy skepticism, and becoming more sensitive to the smell of bias and deception. No one likes to be lied to, and we all, deep down, hunger for truth.
Meanwhile, through all the noise, people may be noticing a truth: that across humanity, despite apparent differences, we’re all basically the same: we like to laugh, we enjoy good food, good company, a comfortable home. Without too much effort, it’s actually possible to empathize with anyone, anywhere, regardless of their cultural identity or appearance. With each passing year, our walls of separatism grow more illusory.
The Family of Man, a 1955 collection of photos from around the world, powerfully illustrated this truth, and now an hour spent on YouTube or TikTok can illustrate it in granular detail. The “other” may be strange, but, we find, is also strangely familiar – and strangely beautiful.
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