It Starts with a Flicker: How Games Can Bring Humanity Closer Together

I was once removed from a synagogue by security because members of the congregation thought I was a terrorist. It was 2006, and I was on a three-week-long backpacking trip in Australia and eager to participate in the Kol Nidrei service of Yom Kippur, the opening of the holiest holiday of the year. But instead of being able to pray, I was interrogated by guards who removed meFrankly, it was disorienting to suddenly be seen as the threat—one who is feared because I was an outsider. While I understood, generally, what it feels like to be judged based on how I look; as a petite, light-skinned, American woman, I had never been viewed as being “the threat.” My experience in Australia, though upsetting, was profound because it showed me that although I could empathize with all sorts of individuals, I could not completely understand what it is like to be someone else. Though we may yearn to listen, understand, and appreciate, we cannot fully “get” someone from another country, religion, culture, background or political stance.