Self-segregation: how a personalized world is dividing Americans
One of my friends in the military has described to me the role of &quot;acceptable racism&quot;, and I find it noteworthy. Many stories he has are of people teasing each other about race. Most of the conversations would be wholly unacceptable in civilian life, but there is a required camaraderie in the military that creates an undertone of understanding and respect. That is, the missing feature of civilian life that prevents this is the implicit understanding that &quot;if shit happens, I&#x27;ve got your back&quot;.<p>The &quot;media&quot; (in quotes because that term continues to grow in breadth) is largely to blame for the toxic culture around diversity of thought and respect for those with different experiences than oneself. It manufactures fear and outrage. People cling to fear and outrage, and the first step to fixing self-selecting segregation is to combat uneducated fear and outrage. I don&#x27;t mean to say that we all need to love each other and get along, but we do need to engage, and not use headlines&#x2F;taglines&#x2F;tweets to inform our outrage at one another.