My new colleague, Dr. Drew Cagle, wrote his first From the Murphy Center column a few weeks ago. His charge to readers was to restore civility in politics. Anyone who has followed politics in our nation knows that civility has fallen out of favor. Many Americans root for a political party like their favorite sports team and treat the other party as a hated rival. Incivility is the new norm. Dr. Cagle suggested that we must proactively seek out a diverse range of opinions, remain open-minded, and find common ground.
I wholeheartedly endorse this call for civility, but partisan politics and siloed media don’t make it easy. If you only watch Fox News or CNN, it’s hard to understand the perspective of the other side. Similarly, our social networks tend to be composed of like-minded folks. Many people don’t engage regularly with those who hold dissimilar worldviews. Thus, it’s easy to stereotype or vilify a group that we do not understand.
Students in my Introduction to Sociology course are challenged to understand those dissimilar from themselves, a skill that can be applied to promote civility. Sociologists note that our ethical and social standards reflect our own cultural context. If we want to understand the behavior of “the other,” we need to understand their values, beliefs, and cultural practices. Understanding the reality of a group or the complexity of social phenomena should be prerequisites to judgment or action. This can be applied cross-culturally or to groups within our own communities, including to supporters of political parties.
There’s plenty of intolerance and closed-mindedness on both sides of the political aisle. Stereotyping “Trump supporters” or “the woke left” will not lead to civil discourse. Conservatives often fail to understand the perspectives of certain groups, including undocumented immigrants, transgender persons, and marginalized populations. Similarly, liberals often fail to understand the perspectives of those who voted for former President Trump, gun enthusiasts, and rural Americans. Folks on both sides of the aisle can benefit from understanding the beliefs and values of those aligned with the other political party. Understanding how others see the world and why our fellow Americans support particular policies can promote civil discourse.
Beyond promoting civility in politics, understanding those dissimilar from ourselves is necessary to address real-world social problems. Understanding why someone wants to own an AR-15 or why someone uses illegal drugs should be a prerequisite to developing relevant public policy.
Another of my Murphy Center colleagues, Dr. Heather Farley, wrote a column recently on combatting homelessness in the Golden Isles. Blanket stereotypes are often imposed on those who are homeless due to a lack of understanding; homeless persons are labeled as lazy, substance abusers, or mentally ill. The reality of homelessness in the U.S. is a lot more nuanced. Most homeless people are not choosing a lifestyle of homelessness. In fact, most who are homeless are experiencing homelessness temporarily, often as the result of an adverse life event. For many single moms, the precarious financial reality of balancing paid employment and childcare leads many mothers and their kids to end up homeless. I could go on. One should understand the lived reality of a group and the dynamics of a phenomenon before developing public policy. How can you fix something that you don’t understand?
Just as there are a multitude of reasons one might experience homelessness, there are a host of reasons why people make political decisions. Understanding leads to knowledge and empathy, which allow us to find common ground and develop useful public policy.
Understanding the cultural practices of those dissimilar from ourselves is a prerequisite to civil discourse in politics. Further, understanding the perspectives of those entangled in social problems is necessary to change behavior and mitigate public issues that plague our nation.
Roscoe Scarborough, Ph.D. is chair of the Department of Social Sciences and associate professor of sociology at College of Coastal Georgia. He is an associate scholar at the Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies. He can be reached by email at rscarborough@ccga.edu.
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