How does fear of difference feed into conflict?

The fear of something different or the difference between two things often brings conflict.  When a person has no knowledge of something which is different than himself or herself, the first reaction is usually fear.  Fear builds on itself so that unless something or someone explains the differences in a way the person can understand AND relate to, the fear remains. When something is unknown or feared, conflict raises its head.  At first it is small conflict perhaps among students at school.  That can lead to conflict among parents, the community and then to law enforcement which can grow much too widespread.  Soon, it touches far too many people. Too much of the conflict in this country is due to fear, and too many of the candidates for president are preying on the fears of the populace about immigrants, religions, etc. 

For example, in my family alone, we have a transgendered female, one gay male, three Muslims, two Buddhists, several Catholics, three blacks, two Hispanics, two South American "sons" along with their wives and children,  several diabetics, two celiac disease, one cell mast disease, one autistic, one adopted child, etc.   As you can see, the difference in my family is sort of a microcosm of the world.  Fear is not really part of our lives in the same way that others fear people of color, those who speak another language, those from other countries or those of different religions or sexual orientation.  People must learn to talk to each other over their fear and learn what the other person is like.  We have to get over the fear of the unknown.