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I did my doctoral research on perceptions of “others” and its relationship to violence. The research is now 30 years old, but it’s never been more relevant. The short version: perceiving people as different than us has no correlation to violence. But once we perceive people 1/5
as less valuable than us/worth less then we are willing to tolerate structural violence. Like inhumane conditions in detention, less pay for the same work, not hiring someone because of who they love, or discriminatory housing policies. We look the other way and attempts at 2/5
building empathy don’t work because we believe they are inherently less valuable and deserve different treatment. But we don’t condone direct violence because someone is less valuable. We condone direct violence when we come to believe a group of people is dangerous to us 3/5
and our loved ones. If we believe they threaten our safety or well-being we will act violently or let others act violently toward whole groups of people. This is why the comments by the #RacistPresident cannot go unchecked. We cannot tolerate the POTUS treating human beings 4/5
as if they are less than human and a danger to us. The ideas he espouses are an existential threat to our very core values. Every political and religious leader in this nation has a duty to speak up. #NeverAgainIsNow
