I know I'm a bit late but I hope this helps someone else!
Explanation:
There are three main causes of ethnic conflicts. Cause one is things like language and religion, cause two is things like political, social and economic factors and our cause three is things like newspapers or lies / rumors spread by other ethnicities.
Cause One: Language and Religion
Language and religion are major reasons for conflict. Take the Old City of Jerusalem for example. All four religions cramped together; they're bound to have a ton of conflicts.
For the language part of it, if you can't understand what someone is saying then it's going to be hard to work out your differences. For example, if someone is saying something in German to a French person, the French is probably going to think he's being yelled at because the German language is so harsh.
Cause Two: Politics, Social Structure, And Economy
For the political side of things, if there are more of one ethnicity in power, other ethnicities will assume that they aren't being treated fairly, and conflict will break out.
For the social part, there's most likely going to be a natural separation of ethnicities because they feel more comfortable together. It's like in the lunchroom, people in a friend group usually stick together, and if a newcomer tries to break into the friend group it's kinda hard because you aren't familiar with said newcomer and they make you nervous. So if someone from Ethnic Group A comes over to Ethnic Group B, Group B will treat them strangely, leading to the person from Group A starting to spread rumors and finally a conflict. Another example is when a store worker sees a teenager in a store by themselves. It happens to boys more than it does girls, which is sad. The store worker might start following the teenager discretely or out-right tell them to leave. This is a good example of social discrimination.
For the economy portion, if one ethnic group has more money than the other, then Ethnic Group A will assume that Ethnic Group B has more power, and will try to 'overthrow' the 'tyrants'. A good example of this is the Tutsi and the Hutu people. The Tutsi were favored by the invaders coming in and therefore the Hutu blamed them for their harsh treatment.
Cause Three: Lies and Propaganda
There will definitely be conflict between ethnic groups if lies are being spread about eachother. If someone from Ethnic Group A lies and says something about Ethnic Group B, then Ethnic Group B will come out and tell a lie about Ethnic Group A and the cycle will repeat and make a giant snowball of lies until the snowball becomes so big it smushes everyone's reason and they go to war. Well, they get in a conflict.
