The more I think about racism the more I think that what’s at the heart of it is exclusivity. And as long as exclusivity maintains there will always be systems which conspire to segregate people. Racism is the darker part of segregation. Exclusivity and segregation go together. Society is exclusive at every quarter: in personal and professional relationships, in families and marriages, in work, in the legal system and contracts, in politics and religion. Everywhere there are barriers to connection. There are very few areas in our world where participation isn’t heavily vetted.

This is so prevalent it is almost endemic. Helped along by an individualistic, technology-driven culture it leads to a state of atomism where people are bound up in their own cell-like existence less connected, less involved, less caring with respect to what goes on in other lives. It is the antithesis of an inclusive world of integration. It is far from the open-door society where knowledge and information as well as goods are shared.

As an attempt to keep out rather than welcome in, exclusivity is the insidious root of the racism problem. Racism easily follows from it as another one of the many ways people are wilfully kept apart. In this sense exclusivity is a kind of social apartheid. To exclude based on ethnic history has become a cause for reprimand. To do it as a matter of course in common exchange is a regular occurrence and happily regarded as the acceptable way of things.

Of course it has to be said there are good reasons for establishing boundaries. The dark side of humanity may be a fixed reality, something given that has to be worked with. That would be all the bad acts, the stupidity, the greed, the corruption, the deviancy, the wickedness, the criminality, the unspeakable evil that at times has been visited upon humans by other humans. If these are a given then protection is required. People have to insure themselves from the dark side, from the minor transgressions to the most heinous crimes. It’s not surprising therefore that they should be careful of congress and quick to create divisions.

That said, if individuals across the board could live to a standard of ethics and behaviour that took into consideration the interests and the feelings of others then quality of life would improve immeasurably. People and their associated groups would feel less need to segregate. In a world like this compassion would be the primary value. The concerns of others would take precedence over personal selfishness. This is the simplicity in the Christian philosophy. It was also the essence of the Marxian message.

If barriers have to be erected and participation restricted let it only be sometimes; lets not have it become a modus-operandi. Instead of upholding exclusivity as a virtue thereby elevating its place, better it be treated as a contingent requirement, not something particularly admired, just something that needs doing, but only minimally, not at every turn till it becomes a corner-stone.

Until we learn to connect better and not succumb so readily to infinite divisions we will forever stunt potential at best; at worst the horrors of racism, ethnic cleansing and war will continue to haunt existence.