How to hack human kindness and end online hate: retired principal

Get to know your neighbours and put an end to cyber racism:it's sounds like a simple solution to complex problem, but Dennis Hall swears it works.

Hall suggests that the reason online hate proliferates is because people don't see the person on the receiving end. He said, "When you don't see the person on the receiving end of what you write, or say, or do, or don't do, it's very easy to dehumanize them and even demonize them and vilify them."

The retired school principal from Saskatoon told Checkup host Duncan McCue about his experience living and working near First Nations communities in Western Canada.

Listen to that conversation here:

Cross Country Checkup5:39August 21, 2016- Dennis Hall

Should racist and sexist comments be banned from social media?

Edited transcript:

Dennis Hall: I went out to be a school principal in Little Pine, Sask., which is near Poundmaker, Red Pheasant and Sweet Grass First Nations. Not far from North Battleford, Sask. [where Colten Boushie was shot.] I lived right there. I got to know and see First Nations people as human beings across the table, in person. I was treated wonderfully.

I went out there with a little bit of trepidation because I had only heard about the First Nations through the media, which didn't leave a very favourable impression. But by certain circumstances, I went out and eventually, I came to love the place. I did not turn on my own. My own background is that I am born in England, raised in a small southwest Saskatchewantown, which had no First Nations anywhere near it. But because I was there and in person. I came to know people in person.

I heard an elder when he phoned in [to a local CBC call in show] and he said that in the old days First Nations people would interact in person with non-First Nations people. They would invite each other to their homes. Non-First Nations people would come out to the reserves to pow wows, special events, and sports days...and vice versa. First Nations people would go into North Battleford or Saskatoon or Lloydminster or Edmonton and there was a lot of interaction in person.

I think the Internet is reflecting a lot of what is going on in our society, in that people are not interacting in person. When you don't see the person on the receiving end of what you write, or say, or do, or don't do, it's very easy to dehumanize them and even demonize them and vilify them.

I've sat on corporate boards. I associate with people of all stripes. I have seen and heard people say, "I won't go to that part of town. I don't want to know. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want my kids there. I don't want my daughter walking the streets there..." You can easily say awful things when you don't see that the other person is like you.

Dennis Hall's comments have been edited and condensed. This online segment was prepared by Lisa Mathews.