Marshall McLuhan once said that,”Violence is a quest for identity.” I find "myself," or a group finds "itself," through confrontation with another. It follows, that when a person, group or people, feels that their identity is being threatened, they lash out in violence. Violence here is really all about the creation of boundaries. We act violently in order to establish some clear demarkation between ourselves and the “other.” All of this seems to have something to do with human development. Watch, for instance, how small children, as they emerge from unconscious identification with the mother, to a gradual sense of individuality, enjoying hitting and striking. It’s as if they are trying to get clear as to where the boundaries are between self and world. Identity therefore, is always a matter of finding oneself through another. In terms of politics and history, “whiteness” is a relatively recent invention. In Europe for instance, there have been innumerable wa...