Tim
This is a fascinating and relevant topic. Some things that come to mind, coming from a couple of documentaries doing the rounds (a accidental courtesy and white right: meeting the enemy):
Identity can be too abstract, as you point out, there are a lot of ways to sort and separate people (race, gender, class, creed, geography, age, rural/urban) which leads to a post modern mess. Since each identity splits the population into dominant and minority groups, there is a cycle of “what about the ‘Xs?” We care most easily for people we can put a face to.
There’s psychological phenomenon called competitive victimhood — which boils up strongly in the accidental courtesy documentary.
http://www.in-mind.org/article/the-victim-wars-how-competitive-victimhood-stymies-reconciliation-between-conflicting-groups
Something that caught my attention in your article was the idea that compassion can be demanded. If there’s a lack of compassion, then it needs to be developed — a core idea in many religions — then applied. Demands lead to resentment a lack of acknowledgement or consideration, which builds a bigger barrier.
