How would you counter separatism...

[benhur]

...as opposed to racism? Please read the post carefully before answering.

Suppose a person who's been discriminated against says, "I believe in separatism because it protects me from racists, makes me feel happy or at least at home living amongst my own, feel safe and secure that no one's gonna judge me on the basis of color, race, and all that. Therefore, I favor separatism/segregation which has nothing to do with racism or hate, it gives me protection."

How will you counter his arguments? If you say all humans are one, there's no such thing as race, he will argue that the racists don't feel that way, which is why they beat the crap out of him in the first place. So how will you answer him? Pointing to the cause of racism is of no use here, because a victim doesn't give a hoot about socioeconomic factors, or any other factor. As any other human being, he only cares about protecting himself and his family. Naturally, he might tend toward separatist thoughts, if only to defend himself against racists.

Hence, the question remains. How will you convince a racially abused and hurt individual that communism, rather than separatism, is the way forward?

[Jack]

Stomp racists, then said seperatist will say "damn, these guys must have something right".

[Lynx]

This person is making a pragmatic choice. You can try to persuade them that communism will be able to make a concrete difference in terms of race relations. That of course, remains a future goal and is of little consolation now.

[Bitter Ashes]

Hmmm. Although I agree that seperatism may reinforce divisions, I do also wonder what can be done and indeed if anything should be done by outsiders. In a way, is the idea of using soviet groups similar to kind of seperatism in practice too? i.e. The idea that this is your own workplace and it is populated by workers like yourself who understand what is best for the soviet, rather than leaving it to outside sources like management, or politicians to deciede.
Maybe a diverse and moderate police force would help alieviate thier fears, whilst at the same time, not using a milita made up just of the seperatist locals who would reinforce the divisions further? After all, the effect you're after is to protect everyone equaly, while at the same time helping people to see that they're bieng protected by thier fellow human bieng, not just one racial group closing ranks to look after its own.