Do We Need to Teach Tolerance?

I recently saw a sticker, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, that said, “Fighting hate. Teaching tolerance. Seeking Justice.” And that made me think about the very *nature* of tolerance.
We often teach that intolerance towards a certain group is unjustified because *there is no logical justification for the intolerance.* When we try to "teach tolerance" by highlighting differences, it serves to create further separation. *It creates a false reality that there is an "us" and a "them."*
Much of the world has crappy feelings that are associated with an “other” group: a racial group, religious group, elitists, people that live on the other side of the tracks, and so on. The problem is that when we have a misunderstanding of where our feelings come from, it often looks like we need to *do something* about that group of people in order for us to be okay. That "doing" often turns into violent behavior, snide comments, not hiring certain people, or other forms of discrimination.
I often notice how good it feels to be on the “right” side of an argument — standing up for the little guy, or pointing out the injustice of one warring faction compared with the other. I’m not saying that all actions should be left unchecked. But when I notice how my heart tightens as I point toward separation, the urge to “fight hate” softens. What replaces it isn’t tolerance at all — it’s the simple recognition that there was never an “other” to manage in the first place.

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Image credit: https://unsplash.com/@mariodobelmann

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