by Dr. Yaounde Olu
One of the biggest challenges faced by humanity today is the question of how to get along with each other, and most of the challenges can be attributed to xenophobia. Xenophobia is the fear, dislike, or hatred of anything perceived as foreign or strange, particularly people from different cultures or countries. Basically, planet Earth is a hotbed of differences among people, places and things.
There are so many skirmishes between people and cultures that it is a wonder that the planet is still intact. Arguably, xenophobia is at the foundation of the perpetual warfare that the Earth has experienced since human beings discovered that there are ethnic, racial and cultural differences among people.
Racial differences are behind what seems to be a majority of the issues dividing people. For example, today, the biggest schisms tend to be between people of different ethnicities, races, etc. There are also issues between men and women, between straight and gay people, between handicapped people and the non-handicapped, between people who are meat eaters and vegetarians, and more.
If we look at the world as a whole, this condition is repeated in the animal kingdom. It is interesting to watch two dogs pass each other in the streets with their owners wherein they become aggressive while passing another person walking a dog. The dogs tend to start barking aggressively, pulling against the leashes in a seeming effort to attack each other. In other words, there appears to be a natural antipathy between many dogs when they encounter a different canine.
In addition to dogs, if we notice the plan of the planet, everywhere we observe animals in nature, they are potential prey for ubiquitous numbers of predators. Essentially, Earth is not safe due to differences between Earth dwellers.
With this said, it provides insight regarding the challenges that humanity faces. Humans represent the apex of animal life on Earth. This is due to the notion that as humans, we are able to reason on higher levels, or so we think. The truth is that human beings are as hostile against each other as are animals. In essence, we live in a planetary jungle wherein interspecies hostility is a given.
Today, we might be on the verge of a World War based on tensions that surround us. Israel recently decided to bomb the spit out of Iran due to their problematic history in search of a homeland. Certainly, there’s no doubt that Israel deserves to have a homeland, but some people believe that they are going about it the wrong way. The Israelis took over land that they allege was bequeathed to them by their God. In doing so, they displaced the people who were already living on the land squeezing them into smaller and smaller territories, which has created extreme animosity between the Israelis and Palestinians, the people who are being displaced. This is a very dangerous situation, especially since there is a threat of war.
Ultimately, the United States is in a very precarious position because of a threat looming that promises to involve warfare with any country that helps Israel. If we give this some thought, we might conclude that World War III might be triggered. A war of such magnitude would prove to be extremely disastrous. If nuclear war breaks out, in the long run, it could wipe out humanity as it is now known. If this should happen, the basic cause of the catastrophe would be xenophobia!
Ultimately, if we stop to really assess our lives on Earth, we might surmise that we are part of a grand experiment, one wherein we are forced together with our differences, tasked with figuring out how to get along together. If we want to continue our existence on our planetary home, we must avoid the pitfalls of xenophobia as much as possible. As Black people, we also have this mandate; we must figure out how to navigate a successful life amid diverse and hostile populations, and sometimes this includes other people like ourselves! Aluta continua.
Reprinted from the Chicago Crusader
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