Solidarity begins with a place

The existence of something that has a label requires something else to also exist. Identity markers define these differences to create separation from each other. A lecturer in university explained this to me as: if the only colour in the world was red, there wouldn’t be a colour called red. It would just be. To conceptualise something called red, there must also exist something that is green, brown, black and so on.

This is how communities exist. They are groups that in essence draw their identity out of what they are not as much as what they are. Traditionally, the shared identity of a community exists on the basis of a claim of ownership over a piece of land. History, culture, language, social mores and more are cultivated and a sense of “we” is born out of something that is shared. Though birthplace is purely accidental, it would seem churlish to refute a person’s right to feel pride in that place, or to feel as though he has a special connection to it that outweighs what someone who is a stranger might feel towards it.

Most in politics understand this, that there is an affinity, a sense of loyalty and love to the place that you call home, and that that place belongs to you more than it belongs to others. This is how humanity has operated throughout history, and though it has certainly resulted in grim levels of violence, it has also presented persecuted groups…