Distance and segregation are breeding grounds for failures of understanding and empathy and ultimately injustice and the denial of others’ rights. If we allow ourselves slowly to become a country where we are simply unable to imagine ourselves in another’s shoes, we can’t understand the complexity of how discrimination occurs and how it feels. Lacking respect for those we don’t know or understand makes it easy to blame inequality and poverty on individuals—rather than on the system. Once we’re caught up in blaming each other, how can we possibly create a society that values equality?
