There is no "them"

I'm always amazed by how humans distance themselves from other humans.  It is not me - it's them.  It is not us - it's them.

The problem is them.  A different generation.  A different gender.  A different race.  A different political affiliation.  A different social normal.  A different economic strata.  A different nationality. A different religion.  A different mode of dress.

News flash - we are all sharing one planet.  The divisions we make are all artificial.  I don't have a problem with identifying behavior that is unacceptable.  I try my best to live the golden rule, and if someone in my world consistently practices hurtful or disrespectful behavior, I will distance myself from that person.

But I don't believe that entitles me to assign the "them" label to everyone who shares a demographic attribute with a singular person whose behavior makes me uncomfortable.

Assigning the "them" label is socially, and emotionally, lazy.  If you lump people under a them label, you no longer have to expend the effort to get to know people as individuals.  You can just stay in your comfortable "us" place.

What a tremendous loss!  No person is only a demographic attribute.  We are all complex.  As my grandmother, Sophie, was fond of saying, you can't paint anybody with one brush.

If each of us works hard to stop thinking of entire groups of people as them, and thinking of humanity as us, maybe we can get past the artificial divides that cause so much conflict.

We are one race, the human race.  There will be people on this planet who commit great crimes against people and the planet.  There will be people on this planet who practice incredible acts of kindness, and who change mankind for ever for the good.  You will share a demographic with those who commit great crimes. You will share a demographic with those who do great good.

You are still you.  Sharing a demographic with someone means nothing other than that you share one of many demographics that you inhabit.

There are so many great people on this planet.  Everyone deserves the chance to be known for who and what they are, not put aside because they share a demographic with someone who exhibited a behavior you would rather not see in your world.

Once you open yourself to the possibility that everyone one is one of us, we humans, you expand your capacity to enrich your life with the diversity, complexity, and overall awesomeness of the human race.  Try as hard as you can to stop from thinking of other humans as "them".  It not only diminishes others, it diminishes you too.