Elizabeth Lesser gave a really good talk on getting to know people that we have often personally stereotyped. Our tendency to “other-ize” people in our lives may leave us in the dark what is really going on in other people’s lives. Also another good point she made was that we often draw the family circle line too small, family here means our immediate community. This video is worth a watch.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Elizabeth Lesser: Take “the Other” to lunch
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_lesser_take_the_other_to_lunch.html