WANT TO UNDERSTAND REALITY? READ FICTION.

from the Columbian:

People who don't understand the rage that many black youths must have for white Americans just don't understand the individual human heart. Even Pitt's, himself black, misses something. That one of the attackers has a white mother is one more reason why he'd feel so conflicted and enraged by his condition. His behavior is no mystery at all.  

Until we begin to look at each individual as a novelist or poet or psychologist looks at human beings, we will fail to see them correctly. Generalizations driven by labels won't get at the truth. We must view each other as individuals and try to fathom our behaviors as novelists and poets think about our emotion-driven behaviors, with an effort to understand how the individual's emotions drive his actions. We don't have to agree with a novelist's presentations, but we do need to approach one another as novelists or poets think about them—imaginatively. Then, we'll all at least be in the same ballpark, watching the same baseball game. It's emotions that drive all our behaviors. Not ideas. Until we understand one another as emotional beings, we'll remain lost in labels and generalizations. Ironic as hell, but true: read good fiction if you want to understand reality as it must be understood.