A white person was by definition somebody. Other people needed, across their hearts, one steel rib.
Gish JenIt's a matter of whether you see the self as fundamentally in relationship to other selves or not - whether you see the boundary between self and the world as relatively permeable, which makes you "interdependent" (collectivist) in outlook, or relatively impermeable, which makes you "independent" (individualistic).
Gish Jen