Grow Your Tribe
Approaching conflict management, violence prevention, risk management, self defense, personal empowerment etc. is really about inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness. You might be thinking "what do you mean inclusive vs. exclusive?" "What does that have to do with conflict management, and violence prevention?" Well, for starters, we typically treat people differently if they are in our "in group." People we identify with we tend to treat differently than people who we view as being different. Why? Because we may feel threatened at some level. This may be obvious or it may not be. Think how in history we have treated diverse groups of people differently than the group that we were in. Think of how African Americans were treated, or Native Americans, or women. Jim Crow Laws (which imposed unconstitutional acts on African Americans) were in effect well into the 20th century, 100 years after abolishing legalized slavery. Why is it that even today women a