Different

And yet the same

Every group or community is different in its idiosyncrasies, but everyone ultimately wants the same thing: to make a living. It seems harder than it is. You have to. In practice, we all have to work in our own way. You have to know to what extent you express that, belonging to a particular minority group. You have to find your way and that is often not an easy task.

Everyone must be given the freedom to decide for themselves whether to highlight that identity, and there is a wide variety of strategies in that regard. All these new groups come with their sensitivities, and we have to learn to take that into account. Suppose society were not diverse, as it is in some backward areas, that would just be monotonous and boring, wouldn’t it?

Our country owes it to itself to create a climate in which any community can thrive that is willing to live together peacefully. Believe me, virtually all of them are. This wishful thinking will not come about by itself, and it will take effort. That is what we are doing, and it is not always easy. Then, when we start harassing each other with hurtful images, endless discussions arise in an unpleasant atmosphere.

In our modern democratic society, however much democracy is to be taken with a grain of salt, the state has a monopoly on the exercise of law and the use of force that necessarily flows from it. There will always be naughty people, who commit crimes or misdemeanors, against which action must be taken. That includes hate crimes.

Such as systematically hurting, insulting and humiliating. I’m sorry for the countless hordes of malicious hate speech trolls who spew their bile on social media every day, but there’s little chance your dream will come true, that everyone would stay in or return to their own country in the future, no matter how unwelcoming you try to make it.

We all have to learn to live with that, with being different. Being different ourselves, but also being different from others. We have to give each other space there, to learn, and you can’t learn without making mistakes. We must all be able to do that, but we must also all learn that some things cannot be done.

Photo: From “Youth of West Africa” by Sierra Nallo. World Press Photo website.

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