Anti-Asian racism and violence – especially against women – is on the rise.

What happened in Atlanta is acute, but not isolated. While many organizations, including Having Kids, condemn these acts it’s crucial to find a grounded solution beyond the fleeting reactions of politicians.

Here is one long-run fix. If racism – and most “isms” – fundamentally arise from humans’ tendency to “other” and degrade people that are not part of their in-group, we need ways to make groups of people more inclusive. Historically government has tried to do that by eliminating formal discrimination, like laws that treated certain races as inferior. This had limited effect. More recently, efforts have focused on structural racism beyond the laws, like changing the way language and other representations can reinforce beliefs about racial inferiority.

Can we go further?

Whether we are part of an in-group, how we perceive others to be related to that group, whether we are really in that group in terms of having an influential voice, etc. – all of these things fundamentally rely on our creation and the family planning norms that determine it. What if instead of ignoring how parents create future generations, we designed systems so that everyone belonged and had a voice? That might work better than simply creating lots of people, jamming them into outdated and massive nation states to maximize economic growth, and simply hoping for good social outcomes that will not happen.

We can fix this. Help Having Kids create truly inclusive communities where we all belong. Take action.