He is not wrong. They both are. So is America,
or at least large parts of it (cough, the South, cough, cough).
For some countries it is culture. Japan is very xenophobic,
Japanese women are only supposed to marry Japanese men. In
India, there is the whole Muslim v Hindu thing. It is very real,
and affects how whole communities view each other. And in America,
in large swaths of the country, the problem is all too often race.
Not communicating with each other, existing side by side, ignoring
the people that live just down the block.
And then you throw in tough times, money is tight, people on edge,
nerves frayed. Things get rough. America and the World are going
through tough times right now. We could come together and reach out
to each other and realize we are all really in the same boat. But that
is not the usual human inclination. It is very easy to seek others to
blame. And humans so often choose this as the path they want to follow,
often forgetting that it was largely their own decisions in life that brought
them to where they are.
Solutions? It would do all of us well, and our communities, to reach out to
others not like us, to become more accepting of them, and to realize we all
share the same struggles, and the same problems. Will it happen? Not for a decade or
more I'm afraid. I have strong 'faith/belief' (I'm an atheist btw) in the younger generations
perhaps succeeding where older generations did not. They seem to be a tad bit more
flexible in their thinking, and THAT is a good thing. So yes, eventually I think it will
get better. But not right away. Unfortunately...