The theme of the BorderWork(s) Humanities Lab that I am a part of a Duke is how the idea of a division between people — a border, a wall, an invisible divider (like race or religion) can (among other things) either threaten the security of communities or enhance a feeling of safety. My class, At Home/On the Wall, has students looking at this question through different lenses: refugee flows in Iraq and Syria, divisions within Duke’s culture (international students, PanHell, LGBTQ), and persistent sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland.

We do humans insist on these difference, often so minuscule? That question again came to mind as I read the Washington Post’s funny but all-too-accurate “9 questions about Ukraine you were too embarrassed to ask.” Though outsiders may think of Ukraine as that former Soviet satellite, a featureless and same-ish ukraine-map-compositeplace of mainly Slavic culture and history, in fact the divisions there are marked and at the root of the current unrest. Are we all fated to quarrel — and sometimes come to blows — over these ancient separations?

In some ways Americans are uniquely unsuited to understanding the power of these centuries-old separations. After all, so many of us are the children of those who, fed up with tribal, ethnic and religious strife, fled.

But (as one colleague in Belfast pointed out), don’t Americans have our own meaningless hangups around race? In many cities (Milwaukee, most segregated in the US, I’m talking to you), there are invisible yet no less palpable borders dividing us along racial lines. We easily fall into life on “the right side,” feeling uncomfortable or nervous when we cross. Maybe Americans largely discount the power of language, culture or ethnicity (we celebrate “mixing,” if not genetically always certainly in the sharing of culture, holidays, foods etc) but we are largely blind to our own lines in the sand around skin color.

So in trying to understand what is happening in Ukraine, try substituting terms with out own cognates. In the end, I don’t think it’s too hard to understand even as I wish we could all find a better way to like in peace.

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