The scientific community is relatively homogeneous, and they seem to work pretty well together, at least from time to time. There's plenty of room for improvement, but it's complicated. I think exposure to other cultures and ethnicities diffuses tension, and exposure corresponds decently well with how close you live to a city center. If your coworkers and friends include a wider range of racial groups, you start to realize that no one group of people is "bad". Some people are bad just about everywhere, and individual circumstance dictates a lot. Maybe our institutions keep a lot of that evil at bay, but those institutions haven't been working too well lately. Good post, thanks. Edit: I'm trying out this new format of saying what I think before reading the article, and then comparing the two. It's pretty cool when you see other people arriving at the same conclusion independently. In fact, it's kinda scientific. But only kinda, because we're talking people and opinion here.