"Nationality, race, colour, religion, wealth, poverty—all of these do not matter to us" (ODAT, July 19)
That's a very good principle for me to follow.
As soon as I identify myself with any of those characteristics (and produce an identity from them), or from any other group characteristics, I'm (a) eclipsing the real identity, which is the particular and unique perfection of each individual human being, not a collection of uninformative labels and (b) separating myself from anyone who appears to belong to other groups.
Al-Anon has taught me that we're all in it together inside Al-Anon. We're also all in it together outside Al-Anon. I am vigilant to avoid them-and-us thinking: demonising the other and lionising the us.