June 12, 2023
When I was fresh from college and unsure what came next, I found myself in a career-counseling session that suggested I wasn’t very good at a great many things. Still, there was hope for me, given my instinct to connect. I was characterized as a “bridge-builder” and advised that a profession—like teaching—that featured plenty of human contact would suit me. It did, for twenty years. More recently, I leaned even more heavily into my bridge-building tendencies, writing a book called Learning to Depolarize and starting Middle Ground School Solutions to help prepare today’s students to ease tomorrow’s political polarization.
It is my job, then, to help educators reach across lines of divide and find the motivation and tools to help students do so because political polarization is an enduring challenge that awaits those students. This work animates people, although questions arise. One of the most vexing of these speaks to a quote widely attributed to James Baldwin but which is in fact the product of author Robert Jones, Jr. His tweet (since deleted) resonated with many: “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” At nearly every presentation I deliver, I am confronted with this question. How, people ask, am I supposed to empathize with, or even tolerate, someone who does not recognize my humanity or the humanity of those I care for? Is this not a bridge too far?
No one should, in the interest of political diversity or any other project, have to engage with, humor, or embolden someone who does not recognize one’s basic humanity. Still, we must face the enormity of our country’s challenges, and we must realistically consider the depth of the divides that separate those who might otherwise team up to solve those challenges. Some of the most essential bridges may in fact be those that reach the most alienated and angry among us. Could there be more than one answer to this central question of whether we engage with those who deny others’ humanity?
For a couple of years, in partnership with folks within and beyond the world of education, I have thought deeply about this question. This past winter I convened a series of conversations with school-based DEI practitioners to discuss the tension inherent in pursuing…