Ties that Bind

At a seminar on multicultural issues, a contentious Latino PhD from the audience angrily asserted that a White female PhD on the panel had little in common with him. Both are human beings, with similar physiological and psychological needs. Both are middle-class American educators--perhaps struggling to care for aging parents, provide a better life for their children, or plan for their own retirements. Maybe they're concerned about overpopulation, the war, environmental degradation--or about the price of gas, paying off their credit cards, balancing their family budgets; clearly both are interested in the impact of race and ethnicity in our society. The distinctions that separate them are few and superficial; the commonalities that bind them are many and fundamental.