Breaking Walls

An older white South African named Doc Foster lectured us today and had a lot of interesting stuff to say. He talked about the psychological side of race and race relations. He started by saying how race does not even exist, since there is no type of machine that can read one’s race. I found this unbelievable, but then remembered a discussion we had about how humans will look for anyway to categorize the unfamiliar.
An interesting concept we talked about today as well as before was the contact hypothesis, something I was able to personally relate to. When people have a common goal and know it can be somehow achieved, they are motivated for success in extraordinary ways. This process can bring people together no matter who they are. During World War II, both white and black soldiers needed to fight as one to survive. This created enormous amounts of trust and team work, which can tear down previous barriers in the span of two seconds. And when battle was over, this allowed for interracial relationships that might have not happened if not for that common goal. From my own experience, I have found this similar to playing on athletic teams in the past. In football, everyone has each others back. If one person messes up, the play is often a failure. Therefore, you must trust your team mates and know that everyone is there for one thing, to win. Even if you do not like a particular teammate personally, you can trust them.
Without this contact among different races, people often find people of other races intimidating because they have never interacted with them. This is why people often segregate themselves with people that are familiar, and in return feel comfortable. Unfortunately, it is common that this familiarity is due to race. It is very common in all parts of society, especially in schools. I have noticed on a few college campuses, as well as my high school, that the cafeteria is segregated among races. With white students in one area, blacks in another, and so on.
This is unfortunate to see, especially today when all these barriers were thought to have been broken down. However, this informal segregation, I believe, could be solved with a simple solution. If members of all communities could somehow be inspired to pursue the same goal and work as a team, this problem might be solved.
No one could say that this contact hypothesis is false. It has worked in the past and could also work today. It is easier said than done, but the formation of a common goal could bring society so much further.
I believe there will always be a very minimal aspect of informal segregation in society, which is not necessarily a bad thing. People are different and will always have different colors of skin which will be recognized by other people. A discussion about race is not a form of racism, which some people might unknowingly think, which I have in the past. People are so concerned with not trying to offend others they pretend they are colorblind. This should not be the case as we should accept this notion but it should not be linked to anything else. People must forget stereotypes and brake down barriers between races. If this can happen, we can truly all be one people.