At Monday’s table talk, we began with a discussion on the relationship between migration and discrimination that soon blossomed into a larger conversation on the underlying causes of discrimination and the ways we can combat it in our own lives and as a society. GRF Sam opened the discussion by showing us campaign posters from Germany’s far-right political party, the AfD. These posters were quite shocking, with quotes like, “Burkas? We’ll keep our bikinis” and “New Germans? We’ll make our own,” with images of women wearing bathing suits in the first poster and a pregnant woman in the second. Far beyond the implications of the role of women in these ads, I was struck by the blunt xenophobia expressed. Rather naively, I hadn’t considered how strongly some Germans might feel about immigrants coming into their country. Unfortunately, it was all too easy to connect this with our own country.

Over the course of the discussion, one of the other Rose Scholars expressed her frustration that we couldn’t all recognize the humanity within each other and overcome our slight differences. This prompted a further line of discussion on why native inhabitants of a country might be biased against migrants. I suggested that the people who exhibit the most bias are the people who benefit the most from the status quo, and thus they are the most zealous advocates for preserving it. The fear of change is ubiquitous, especially in tumultuous times such as now, but this fear shouldn’t divide us. Instead, it should galvanize us and bring us together, so that we can work to improve lives for native and non-native inhabitants of our country.