“Us” Versus “Them”

During a recent speaking engagement at Penn State, Carl Wilkens, the only American to stay in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, shed light on the Darfur crisis by drawing upon his personal experiences.

According to Wilkens, exclusionary thinking is behind genocide –

Genocide stems from thinking that says “My world would be better without you in it”…Don’t fall into the easy trap of “us” and “them”…it blinds us of the beauty and joy that is always there to be found.

Wilkens urged his audience to realize that the existence of exclusionary thinking is not limited to Darfur or Rwanda. One can find it anywhere – even in the US.