Two articles hit my inbox over the past few days that show (again) that familiarity does not, in fact, breed contempt. Quite the opposite.
First, this piece shows, through a longitudinal study using Census Bureau data, that white veterans are more likely to live in diverse neighborhoods than their civilian counterparts. Serving in the military and having the opportunity to work with people from all ethnic/racial/socioeconomic backgrounds actually leads to greater civilian integration.
And then this 15-years-after-9/11 report finds that while Muslins are ranked as the least esteemed faith group, people who claimed to personally know a person of Muslim faith rated Muslims much more favorably.
So, yeah. Not surprising. It’s a lot harder to demonize groups when you know individuals.
And (here it comes)… guess where another place we could, if we tried, find people who aren’t just like us? Yep. School.
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